AGF Management Ltd. Grows Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

AGF Management Ltd. raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 182,992 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,943 shares during the quarter. AGF Management Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $44,568,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,901,000 after purchasing an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Morton Capital Management LLC CA lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Morton Capital Management LLC CA now owns 10,102 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,792,000 after buying an additional 147 shares in the last quarter. Ignite Planners LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 14,506 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,697,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the period. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC now owns 17,993 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,192,000 after buying an additional 445 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Strategies LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC now owns 11,043 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,959,000 after buying an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on GOOG. Barclays increased their target price on Alphabet from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Truist Financial set a $350.00 price objective on Alphabet in a report on Friday, December 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $345.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. BNP Paribas Exane started coverage on Alphabet in a research report on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Finally, Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Seven investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $343.47.

Alphabet News Summary

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

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $323.10 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $3.90 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 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. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $322.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $271.94. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $350.15.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted 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 $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.15 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. 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 7.77%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $335.18, for a total transaction of $10,893,350.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,179,372 shares in the company, valued at $730,481,906.96. This trade represents a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director owned 21,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,163,524.48. The trade was a 2.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 2,070,464 shares of company stock worth $106,153,077 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Alphabet

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.