Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Stake Boosted by Independent Advisor Alliance

Independent Advisor Alliance grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 282,317 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,571 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.8% of Independent Advisor Alliance’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Independent Advisor Alliance’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $68,758,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fourth Dimension Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 104.2% in the third quarter. Fourth Dimension Wealth LLC now owns 2,403 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $585,000 after buying an additional 1,226 shares during the period. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 143,128 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $34,859,000 after buying an additional 1,744 shares during the period. SWP Financial LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $209,000. Everhart Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 35,162 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,564,000 after acquiring an additional 3,252 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Keybank National Association OH increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.2% in the third quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 796,341 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $193,949,000 after acquiring an additional 32,120 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat: Alphabet reported higher‑than‑expected revenue and EPS, Google Cloud grew ~48% YoY and backlog jumped to roughly $240B — proof of strong AI demand underpinning long‑term growth. Alphabet Crushes Earnings — MarketBeat
• Positive Sentiment: Product and ecosystem wins: Gemini adoption and enterprise traction (large token/API usage) are driving monetization across Search, YouTube and Cloud; Waymo is also using Google’s Genie‑3 model for virtual training — signals that AI investments are translating into product advantage. Waymo Taps Google’s Genie 3 — TipRanks
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst view is broadly positive but mixed on valuation: several price‑target raises and buy/overweight ratings highlight conviction in AI/cloud upside, while some firms flag a hold rating because of aggressive capex and near‑term margin pressure. New Analyst Forecast $395 — QuiverQuant
• Neutral Sentiment: Corporate moves: Alphabet announced a small quarterly dividend and continues to convert AI investments into subscriptions and ad monetization — long‑term positives, but limited near‑term impact on share price.
• Negative Sentiment: CapEx shock: management guided roughly $175–185B in 2026 CapEx (nearly double 2025), which spooked investors because it pushes spending and capital intensity into the spotlight and raises near‑term return uncertainty. That guidance is the primary reason shares fell today. Alphabet Resets the Bar for AI Spending — CNBC
• Negative Sentiment: Insider & fund selling: recent insider sales and public fund trimming (and some institutional position reductions) add selling pressure and amplify short‑term downside risk. Stock Down on Insider Selling — AmericanBankingNews
• Negative Sentiment: Policy & reputational risks: a proposed bill to regulate data‑center interconnection/charges and internal employee protests over government cloud contracts could raise operating costs or create reputational/headwind risks for data‑center expansion. Power for the People Act S.3682 — QuiverQuant Google Workers Demand End to Cloud Services — NYTimes

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $345.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $365.00 price target (up previously from $355.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Mizuho set a $325.00 price objective on Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $360.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $343.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.64, for a total transaction of $9,640,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,304,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $683,642,180.16. This trade represents a 1.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total transaction of $867,569.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 8,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,798,832.60. The trade was a 23.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 2,070,464 shares of company stock valued at $106,153,077 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.5%

GOOG stock opened at $323.10 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $350.15. The company has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $322.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $270.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 2.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The firm’s revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.15 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Alphabet Profile

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.