Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC Reduces Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC cut its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 13.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,571 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 3,525 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,487,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,033,300,000 after purchasing an additional 6,733,278 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after buying an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 3.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,857,017,000 after acquiring an additional 4,224,497 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.2% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,780,875,000 after acquiring an additional 503,306 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 4.0%

GOOGL opened at $314.98 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.81 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.09. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $349.00. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $320.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $278.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic cloud partnerships expanding addressable market — Google announced a deal with Sea Ltd to build AI tools for e‑commerce and gaming, which supports Google Cloud revenue growth in Southeast Asia and demonstrates enterprise demand for its AI stack. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum — Google is rolling Gemini‑powered, music‑focused generative‑AI features (also showing up at competitors), indicating faster consumer AI adoption that could boost engagement and future monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional support & analyst upgrades — recent 13F activity and analyst price‑target increases (and MarketBeat coverage) signal long‑term investor conviction that can underpin the stock. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: AI infrastructure arms race — NVIDIA–Meta mega‑deal and hyperscaler capex plans validate AI demand but raise competitive and capital‑intensity questions for Google; this is demand‑positive but increases the investment bar. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet exploring chip/partner strategies — WSJ reports Google is weighing ways to use its balance sheet to better compete with chip suppliers, a strategic move that could reduce long‑run costs or distract management depending on execution. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — recent disclosed sales by CEO Sundar Pichai and senior exec John Kent Walker (multi‑million dollar sales) can sap near‑term sentiment even if routine for compensation/liquidity reasons. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Security/legal risk — indictment of three engineers accused of stealing Google trade secrets and sending data to Iran raises potential IP, litigation and reputational risks that investors will watch. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: AI rotation/profit‑taking — some prominent managers have trimmed AI positions in recent 13F filings, which contributes to episodic pressure on hyperscaler multiples. Read More.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.30, for a total value of $10,637,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,211,872 shares in the company, valued at $723,945,705.60. This represents a 1.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total transaction of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,798,832.60. This represents a 23.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock worth $119,145,289. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $346.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. President Capital increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $323.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 1st. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $279.00 to $357.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $350.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $365.86.

About Alphabet

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.