Insider Selling: Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Sells 600 Shares of Stock

January 16, 2026 by InsiderTrades.com

Key Points

Director sale: Alphabet director John Hennessy sold 600 shares on Jan. 13 at an average price of $337.52 for $202,512, trimming his stake by 2.75% to 21,224 shares (SEC filing).
Solid fundamentals and recent results: Shares traded around $332.78 with a $4.02 trillion market cap and a P/E of 32.82; Alphabet beat the prior-quarter EPS and revenue estimates (EPS $2.87 vs. $2.29; revenue $102.35B) and pays a $0.21 quarterly dividend (≈0.3% yield).
Mixed catalyst and risk profile: AI momentum and analyst upgrades are supporting the stock, while copyright litigation, U.S. transmission/infrastructure constraints and regulatory pressure present potential headwinds.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) Director John Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.52, for a total value of $202,512.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 21,224 shares in the company, valued at $7,163,524.48. The trade was a 2.75% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.9%

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Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $332.78 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $310.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $253.23. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $340.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.82, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

Alphabet Tops $4 Trillion Valuation as AI Momentum Runs Hot

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.28%.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

Positive Sentiment: Major distribution and monetization wins: Apple and other device makers are integrating Google’s Gemini/AI into core products (Gemini-powered Siri / Personal Intelligence), validating Alphabet’s AI lead and creating a potential licensing revenue stream. Alphabet Tops $4 Trillion Valuation as AI Momentum Runs Hot Google launches Personal Intelligence feature in Gemini app, challenging Apple Intelligence
Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Recent upgrades and a higher price target (Bank of America bumped its GOOGL target) and a consensus "Moderate Buy" view are backing sentiment and likely propped the earlier run-up. Bank of America Boosts Alphabet Price Target
Neutral Sentiment: AI race context — competitive but manageable: DeepMind’s CEO says Chinese models are “months” behind Western leaders, supporting Alphabet’s technological edge, while market commentary shifts from speculative hype to more disciplined AI growth assumptions. China just 'months' behind U.S. AI models, Google DeepMind CEO says AI Stocks: Speculative Hype or Disciplined Growth?
Negative Sentiment: Copyright litigation risk: Major publishers have asked to join a class action alleging Google used copyrighted material to train AI — potential legal costs, injunction risk or licensing liabilities could weigh on margins and sentiment. Publishers seek to join lawsuit against Google over AI training
Negative Sentiment: Infrastructure and energy bottlenecks: Google warns U.S. transmission constraints are making it harder and slower to connect data centers, which could raise capex, slow capacity expansion for cloud/AI workloads, and compress near-term margin improvement. Google says US transmission system is biggest challenge for connecting data centers
Negative Sentiment: Regulatory & reputational pressure: Advocacy groups are urging app-store removals of X/Grok, and broader regulatory scrutiny of AI content and distribution remains a continuing risk for platform operators. Women's, advocacy groups call on Apple, Google to drop X and Grok from app stores

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a "positive" rating and set a $350.00 price target (up previously from $268.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday. CICC Research increased their target price on Alphabet from $240.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. KeyCorp reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $300.00 target price (up previously from $265.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, October 27th. Truist Financial set a $350.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $224.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $326.31.

View Our Latest Research Report on GOOGL

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after acquiring an additional 6,733,278 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $24,857,017,000 after buying an additional 4,224,497 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth $21,944,208,000. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $12,910,542,000 after buying an additional 11,605,785 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google's core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google's consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.