Colonial Trust Advisors Decreases Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Colonial Trust Advisors decreased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 43,354 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,487 shares during the quarter. Colonial Trust Advisors’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $10,559,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Waddell & Associates LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 12.0% during the 3rd quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC now owns 18,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,560,000 after acquiring an additional 2,008 shares in the last quarter. Zhang Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 15,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,719,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. Corepath Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $299,000. Tableaux LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,292,000. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.1% during the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 4,225,087 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,029,020,000 after buying an additional 45,761 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total transaction of $14,341,182.30. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.30, for a total transaction of $10,637,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,211,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $723,945,705.60. This trade represents a 1.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock worth $119,145,289. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of several analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $345.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $360.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $343.90.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $311.43 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $350.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $321.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $282.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.77 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.81, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. 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%.The firm’s revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.15 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current 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 given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google rolled out Nano Banana 2, an upgraded AI image generator with faster performance and better text handling — reinforces product leadership for Gemini/search integrations and helps drive user engagement across Google services. Google launches Nano Banana 2
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reportedly struck a multibillion-dollar deal to rent its AI chips (TPUs) to Meta — a direct revenue and margin-positive outcome from Alphabet’s AI infrastructure investments. Google signs multibillion-dollar AI chip deal with Meta
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is securing power supply agreements for data centers (deals with AES and Xcel), which reduces execution risk for its AI/cloud buildout and supports continued capacity expansion. Alphabet Secures Power Deals
• Positive Sentiment: South Korea approved Google’s request to export high‑precision map data, opening commercial opportunities for Google Maps and Waymo in a market previously restricted — potential revenue and product expansion tailwind. South Korea approves Google bid
• Positive Sentiment: Heavy investors continue to add to Alphabet: notable buying by billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller was reported — an endorsement that can support sentiment among long-term institutional investors. Druckenmiller buys Alphabet
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst coverage and buy ratings remain favorable (recent upgrades and positive notes on cloud/AI), supporting longer-term upside expectations even after concerns about spending. MarketBeat coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest updates in available feeds show anomalous/zero reporting and NaN changes — appears to be noisy data and unlikely to be driving today’s move. (Data entries flagged as 0/NaN.)
• Negative Sentiment: Belgian competition authorities opened a probe into Google’s online ad pricing practices — a regulatory risk that could pressure ad margins or lead to fines/operational changes in Europe. Belgian watchdog probe
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive pressure intensified after OpenAI raised massive funding with Amazon/Nvidia/Microsoft as backers — concentrates AI competition and could blunt parts of Google’s enterprise opportunity or pricing power. OpenAI record funding report
• Negative Sentiment: Investor cautions: critics (Michael Burry, some options trade services) have flagged Alphabet’s aggressive AI capex and warned of margin pressure — a reminder of downside risk if spending outpaces near-term monetization. Michael Burry on Google’s AI spending

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.