Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO Sells $9,877,400.00 in Stock

February 21, 2026 by InsiderTrades.com

Key Points

Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 Alphabet shares on February 18 at an average of $303.92 for a total of $9,877,400, trimming his stake by 1.14% to 2,818,524 shares (≈$856.6M).
This transaction is part of a string of recent dispositions (multiple 32,500‑share sales since December), indicating ongoing insider selling rather than an isolated sale.
Alphabet beat quarterly estimates with EPS $2.82 and revenue of $113.83B (+18% YoY), declared a $0.21 quarterly dividend (0.3% yield), and carries an average analyst "Buy" consensus with a $343.90 target.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total transaction of $9,877,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,818,524 shares of the company's stock, valued at $856,605,814.08. This trade represents a 1.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

MarketBeat Week in Review – 02/16 - 02/20

Sundar Pichai also recently made the following trade(s):

On Wednesday, February 4th, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $335.18, for a total transaction of $10,893,350.00.
On Wednesday, January 21st, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.30, for a total transaction of $10,637,250.00.
On Wednesday, January 7th, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.21, for a total transaction of $10,439,325.00.
On Monday, December 15th, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.80, for a total value of $9,743,500.00.
On Wednesday, December 3rd, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total value of $10,383,750.00.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $314.90 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $320.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $278.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $350.15.

Booking Holdings Split: The Catalyst Wall Street Didn’t See Coming

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.15 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

NVIDIA and Meta Deepen Their AI Alliance—and the Spending Numbers Are Enormous

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Imprint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $31,000. Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Towne Trust Company N.A lifted its position in Alphabet by 34.0% during the fourth quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 134 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Truist Financial set a $350.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $365.00 price objective (up previously from $355.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Loop Capital upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Scotiabank reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $400.00 target price (up previously from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $343.90.

View Our Latest Analysis on GOOG

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

Positive Sentiment: Analysts and brokers have raised price targets and highlighted AI/cloud upside (UBS, Canaccord), citing Gemini adoption and generative‑AI capex that could add meaningful cloud revenue. UBS generative AI capex note
Positive Sentiment: Alphabet committed to a major $15B America‑India Connect initiative and announced partnerships (Zillow, Sea) that expand Gemini/Cloud into verticals — positive for long‑term cloud/ads monetization and market reach. America-India Connect announcement
Positive Sentiment: Notable institutional buying from hedge funds (e.g., Appaloosa/Tepper, Altimeter, Viking) signals conviction in Alphabet’s AI/Cloud thesis and can support the stock through execution milestones. Appaloosa increases stake
Neutral Sentiment: Product demos (Gemini AI coach, music features) and consumer launches (Pixel device with AI features) improve user engagement and positioning but are not immediate revenue drivers. Gemini demo on CNBC
Neutral Sentiment: Reported short‑interest data for February shows anomalies (zeros/NaN) and provides no clear bearish signal at present; treat the statistic cautiously until reconciled.
Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: senior execs disclosed sizable sales (Sundar Pichai, John Kent Walker), which markets often view as a modest near‑term negative signal despite normal tax/liquidity reasons. Pichai sale filing Walker sale filing
Negative Sentiment: Legal/IP risk: prosecutors have charged engineers in an alleged scheme to steal Google trade secrets and pass files abroad — reputational and security concerns that could invite regulatory scrutiny. Trade-secrets indictment
Negative Sentiment: Execution/supply risks: DeepMind’s CEO warned that memory‑chip shortages constrain agentic AI research/deployment, which could slow rollout timing or raise costs for compute‑intensive initiatives. DeepMind chip shortage comments
Negative Sentiment: Several institutional investors disclosed trims (Pershing Square, Longview, others). Broad portfolio rebalancing can weigh on near‑term sentiment even if longer‑term AI momentum remains. Pershing Square trim

About Alphabet

(Get Free Report)

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as "Other Bets." Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company's history.

Alphabet's core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company's ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.