Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Purchased by Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc.

Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 178.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,702 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,731 shares during the period. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $657,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brooktree Capital Management purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth $352,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 13.9% in the third quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,277,000 after purchasing an additional 7,180 shares during the period. Sovran Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 23.6% during the third quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,401,000 after purchasing an additional 4,241 shares in the last quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,028 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,415,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Centerpoint Advisory Group lifted its stake in Alphabet by 21.0% in the 2nd quarter. Centerpoint Advisory Group now owns 2,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $424,000 after buying an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $300.88 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.64 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $320.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $285.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during 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%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.77%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Alphabet from $310.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. New Street Research raised their price objective on Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $350.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $385.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Three research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $366.57.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large commercial win for Google Cloud — CVS will use Google Cloud to launch an AI‑enabled health platform, a meaningful enterprise contract that validates recurring cloud/AI revenue potential. CVS taps Google Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: Bullish industry/analyst tone on AI adoption — reports projecting large AI spending and recent analyst price‑target increases support a higher long‑term revenue multiple for Google Cloud and Gemini. Gartner Says AI Spending Will Hit $2.5 Trillion
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional backing spotlighted — coverage noting Berkshire Hathaway’s profitable position in Alphabet reinforces confidence from large investors. That can underpin demand for shares. Berkshire Is Sitting On Google Gains
• Neutral Sentiment: Routine insider selling disclosed — small sales by a director and the CAO (hundreds of shares) are noted by the market but are modest relative to their holdings and not uncommon. Frances Arnold Sells 112 Shares
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest reporting appears anomalous (zero/NaN in recent feeds) — no clear short squeeze or covering signal from the data provided. Short interest report (data flagged)
• Negative Sentiment: Play Store settlement cuts commissions — Google will lower Play Store commissions to 20% (plus up to 5% for Google billing), which may reduce Play/Android monetization and is a near‑term revenue headwind. Google settles with Epic Games
• Negative Sentiment: AI safety/legal overhang — a wrongful‑death suit alleges harmful instructions from the Gemini chatbot, creating reputational, regulatory and litigation risk for Alphabet’s AI business. Gemini wrongful-death suit
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo safety and regulatory scrutiny — recent incidents and NTSB probes raise execution and regulatory risk for Alphabet’s autonomous‑driving unit, which could pressure investor sentiment on non‑core bets. Waymo Faces Mounting Scrutiny
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/geopolitical tech pullback — regional tensions and related operational impacts (e.g., Dubai) are compressing tech multiples and weighing on large‑cap names like Alphabet. Rising Tensions Force Tech Pullback

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total transaction of $14,341,182.30. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total value of $33,934.88. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,580,469.82. This represents a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 2,079,993 shares of company stock valued at $108,745,244 over the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Company 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.