Insider Selling: Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director Sells $28,257.35 in Stock

02 Oct 2026, 23:40 by Mitch Edgeman · The Markets Daily

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report) Director Frances Arnold sold 83 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.45, for a total transaction of $28,257.35. Following the sale, the director directly owned 19,076 shares in the company, valued at $6,494,424.20. The trade was a 0.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Frances Arnold also recently made the following trade(s):

On Friday, August 28th, Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.71, for a total transaction of $27,692.22.
On Thursday, July 30th, Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.39, for a total value of $27,337.98.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOG traded up $5.42 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $340.35. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 17,465,669 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,584,021. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.09, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.19. The company’s 50-day moving average is $341.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $345.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.64. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $236.68 and a 1-year high of $404.47.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.87 by $6.24. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $116.53 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%.Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 24.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.31 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.55 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $450.00 to $425.00 in a report on Monday, July 27th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $379.00 target price (down from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $395.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $430.00 to $420.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $415.00 to $485.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 18th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $419.93.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Alphabet

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

Positive Sentiment: Gemini 4 Argon strengthens Alphabet’s AI narrative. Google says its new flagship model delivers strong results in coding, cybersecurity, finance, legal work and video understanding. Aggressive pricing could pressure rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic, while potentially expanding demand for Google Cloud and other Alphabet services. Google has been playing catch up with OpenAI and Anthropic
Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive. JPMorgan maintained a positive view, and BNP Paribas reportedly retained a $420 target, citing Argon’s benchmark performance and Alphabet’s ability to monetize AI through its massive consumer, advertising and cloud ecosystems. JPMorgan sets Google stock price target
Positive Sentiment: Market conditions provided a tailwind. Alphabet was among the contributors to gains in the S&P 500, alongside other large technology stocks, indicating that broad risk appetite also helped support GOOG. SPY is up 0.7% today
Neutral Sentiment: New growth initiatives could add longer-term value. YouTube is considering additional live-sports rights, while Project Suncatcher is testing Google AI chips in orbit. Both initiatives are strategically interesting but are unlikely to materially affect near-term earnings. YouTube sports strategy
Negative Sentiment: Investors remain skeptical of Argon’s commercial impact. The model’s rollout is restricted initially because of safety concerns, and analysts note that Google still trails competitors in consumer-facing personal AI agents. This helps explain why the stock’s initial AI-related gains faded. Google unveils latest AI model
Negative Sentiment: Legal and regulatory risks remain significant. Alphabet is challenging EU orders requiring access to search data and services, while a new securities-fraud class action covers investors who purchased shares during the May–July period. Separately, publishers may pursue more than $3.2 billion in damages. GOOGL class action notice
Negative Sentiment: AI spending creates valuation and margin concerns. Alphabet is committing heavily to chips, data centers and power even as some analysts warn that expanding compute supply could reduce pricing. Investors need evidence that AI revenue growth will justify the capital expenditure.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 369,922,502 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $130,704,718,000 after purchasing an additional 5,164,200 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 190,923,442 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $67,458,980,000 after purchasing an additional 5,208,690 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $18,093,665,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 24,595,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,693,281,000 after buying an additional 508,718 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 22,048,456 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,918,805,000 after buying an additional 517,108 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

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Alphabet Inc is a technology holding company best known as the parent company of Google. Established in 2015 through a corporate restructuring, Alphabet oversees Google and a collection of businesses focused on technology, innovation and emerging industries. Sundar Pichai serves as Alphabet’s chief executive officer and also leads Google.

Google is Alphabet’s primary business and operates an internet ecosystem that includes Google Search, online advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and Google Photos.