Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Acquired by Focus Partners Wealth

Focus Partners Wealth boosted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,445,104 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 205,531 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 0.9% of Focus Partners Wealth’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Focus Partners Wealth’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $594,061,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth $53,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter worth $53,000. Corsicana & Co. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $54,000. Finally, Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 37.9% during the second quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total transaction of $33,934.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,580,469.82. The trade was a 0.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. The trade was a 78.25% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 2,076,615 shares of company stock worth $107,809,111 over the last ninety days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $370.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $395.00 target price (up from $365.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.18.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Major competitor Meta has delayed a next‑generation AI release and reportedly discussed temporarily licensing Google’s Gemini model, which could help Alphabet expand usage/licensing of its AI stack and win incremental share. Meta delays release; may license Gemini
• Positive Sentiment: Needham & Company reaffirmed a “buy” on GOOGL and set a $400 price target (~32% upside from current levels), which can support investor confidence and buying interest. Needham reiterates buy
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple reports highlight Meta falling behind on large AI models (and considering licensing Google tech), reinforcing the view that Google could capture market share in foundational models and services. Meta falling behind — Yahoo
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks highlighted Alphabet’s earnings growth and price strength as reasons to watch GOOGL, supporting a constructive fundamental view after recent results. Zacks: earnings growth & price strength
• Neutral Sentiment: Google, Amazon and Meta pushing their own AI chips signals a structural shift in AI infrastructure — a long‑term positive if Google’s stack wins, but it intensifies competition with incumbents like NVIDIA and may pressure margins/capex. AI chips competition — Yahoo
• Neutral Sentiment: Google sold a partial stake in its GFiber unit and partnered to form a new independent fiber provider; this reduces direct capital burden but also trims ownership of the broadband growth asset. GFiber stake sale — CNBC
• Neutral Sentiment: Brand/PR note: Google named its London HQ “Platform 37” referencing DeepMind/AlphaGo success — modestly positive for culture/AI branding but not material to near‑term financials. Platform 37 naming — Reuters
• Negative Sentiment: UK regulator and wider regulatory scrutiny on tech safety and child protection remain overhangs for Big Tech, including Alphabet, since new rules or enforcement could increase compliance costs or constrain certain services. UK regulator warning — Sky

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $302.28 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $319.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $290.39. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $349.00. The stock has a market cap of $3.66 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

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.