Meridian Wealth Management LLC Has $25.04 Million Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Meridian Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 102,814 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,939 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 1.0% of Meridian Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Meridian Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $25,040,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,298,572,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $73,927,821,000 after buying an additional 5,182,111 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 73.5% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 9,808,152 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,388,775,000 after buying an additional 4,154,929 shares in the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17,547.9% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,122,727 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $731,331,000 after buying an additional 4,099,366 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in Alphabet by 330.4% during the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,989,463 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $707,691,000 after buying an additional 3,062,590 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Loop Capital upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $345.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $343.47.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.5%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $323.10 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $350.15. The company has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.89, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $322.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $271.38.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.28%.

Key Alphabet News

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $296.64, for a total transaction of $9,640,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,304,619 shares in the company, valued at $683,642,180.16. This represents a 1.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total value of $35,060,852.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 2,070,464 shares of company stock worth $106,153,077 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.