First Merchants Corp Lowers Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

First Merchants Corp reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 193,264 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 5,048 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.8% of First Merchants Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $46,982,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Corsicana & Co. bought a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $54,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. increased its position in Alphabet by 36.4% in the second quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 37.9% in 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 buying an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, S&T Bank PA raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 40.2% in the second quarter. S&T Bank PA now owns 345 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Big AI monetization wins — Apple’s decision to build next‑gen Siri on Google’s Gemini (a central catalyst behind Alphabet topping a ~$4 trillion valuation) implies licensing revenue and much broader Gemini distribution, which supports revenue and margins. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst backing — recent upgrades and a higher price target (e.g., Bank of America raised its GOOGL target) are propping sentiment and provide near‑term buy‑side support. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: New commercial partnerships — Google announced a Woolworths pilot to add agentic AI to its Olive chatbot in Australia, expanding potential retail use cases and distribution for Google’s AI services. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Competitive positioning — DeepMind leadership and comments that Chinese models are “months” behind support Alphabet’s technical edge, but competition remains intense and will keep investment cycles high. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Antitrust fallout — Google asked a judge to defer an order forcing it to share search data while it appeals a ruling that found an illegal monopoly in search; ongoing remedies or eventual enforcement could materially affect the core search business and ad economics. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Copyright litigation risk — major publishers are seeking to join a class action alleging Google used copyrighted material to train its AI, creating potential licensing costs, damages or restrictions on training data. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Infrastructure headwinds — Google warns U.S. transmission system constraints are slowing data‑center hookups and could raise capex and delay cloud/AI capacity expansion, pressuring near‑term margins. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — a disclosed director sale (600 shares) is small but adds to mixed sentiment amid other headwinds. Read More.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 target price (up previously from $250.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, December 31st. Mizuho set a $365.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. BNP Paribas Exane initiated coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $310.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $326.31.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $330.00 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $311.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $254.85. The stock has a market cap of $3.98 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.08. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $340.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.52, for a total value of $202,512.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 21,224 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,163,524.48. The trade was a 2.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.21, for a total transaction of $10,439,325.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,244,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $720,914,730.12. The trade was a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 189,909 shares of company stock worth $57,927,282 in the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.