Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. Acquires 10,839 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 12.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 100,057 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 10,839 shares during the period. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $24,324,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,944,208,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,686,640,000 after purchasing an additional 15,159,273 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 51.7% in the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,607,232,000 after buying an additional 10,843,853 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after buying an additional 6,733,278 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 201.3% during the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,547,250 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,153,824,000 after buying an additional 4,374,542 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large cloud commercial win — CVS will deploy an AI‑enabled health platform on Google Cloud, validating enterprise demand for recurring cloud/AI revenue and supporting the Google Cloud/Gemini growth story. CVS taps Google Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: AI partnership continuity — Google said Anthropic will remain available for non‑defense projects after DoD actions, limiting disruption to Alphabet’s access to Anthropic models and enterprise AI offerings. Google says Anthropic remains available
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and institutional support — Robert W. Baird lifted its price target to $380 and other firms have boosted targets/ratings recently, reinforcing buy narratives and upside vs. the current price. Baird raises price target
• Neutral Sentiment: Small insider sales — filings show modest sales by a director and the CAO; routine disclosures that markets note but are not large enough to signal strategic conviction changes. SEC filing — insider sales
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary on recent pullback — coverage (e.g., Zacks) highlights the stock’s slide since earnings and asks whether it can rebound, offering investor viewpoints but no new company fundamentals. Zacks — can it rebound?
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/PR overhang: a wrongful‑death lawsuit alleges harmful guidance from the Gemini chatbot, raising potential liability, regulatory scrutiny and reputational risk for Alphabet’s core AI investment thesis. Gemini wrongful‑death lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: Autonomous‑vehicle scrutiny — the NHTSA/NHTSA‑led safety forum and ongoing probes into Waymo incidents increase regulatory risk and operational uncertainty for the self‑driving unit. NHTSA self‑driving safety forum
• Negative Sentiment: App store revenue pressure — a settlement with Epic lowered Play Store commission rates (to ~20% + up to 5%), which could modestly reduce Play‑ecosystem take rates and near‑term revenue. Play Store commission cut
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/geopolitical pressure — recent tensions and tech pullbacks in affected markets (e.g., Dubai exposure) are weighing on large‑cap tech multiples, contributing to negative sentiment around GOOGL. Tech offices respond to U.S.-Iran tensions

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $35,060,852.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total transaction of $867,569.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,798,832.60. This represents a 23.66% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 2,112,493 shares of company stock worth $118,605,094 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $298.80 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $349.00. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock has a market cap of $3.61 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.64, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $319.93 and a 200-day moving average of $286.87.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share 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 is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.77%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Loop Capital upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $320.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Argus raised their price objective on Alphabet from $365.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Tigress Financial set a $415.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 target price (up from $325.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane began coverage on Alphabet in a research report on Monday, November 24th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 target price for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $367.18.

Alphabet Profile

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.