Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. Acquires 2,009 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 221,391 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,009 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 2.3% of Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $53,920,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 5,182,111 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $33,511,477,000 after purchasing an additional 2,428,266 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 107,760,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,022,926,000 after purchasing an additional 441,177 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 99,529,742 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,240,469,000 after purchasing an additional 7,904,434 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% in the second quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 35,357,943 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,272,146,000 after buying an additional 2,117,990 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9%

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $298.30 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.61 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.59, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $350.15. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $320.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $286.82. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.15 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business 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 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 payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large enterprise/cloud wins and AI demand: Google Cloud deals (CVS health AI platform) and reported TPU leasing by Meta point to higher recurring cloud revenue and infrastructure utilization that support near‑term revenue growth. CVS taps Google Cloud Meta leases Google TPUs
• Positive Sentiment: Solid fundamentals/analyst support: Q4 results and earnings beats reinforce the “quality growth” narrative, and Bank of America’s reiterated Buy/$370 target keeps bull case intact. Q4 quality growth Bank of America maintains $370
• Neutral Sentiment: Anthropic access clarified: Google says Anthropic remains available for non‑defense uses after a DoD blacklist — this reduces near‑term disruption risk to customers but leaves policy uncertainty around defense contracts. Google on Anthropic availability
• Neutral Sentiment: Market narrative shifting: Analysts note GOOG’s strong 12‑month run has moved it from a “value” label to an execution/AI‑growth story — bullish if growth continues, but raises expectations. Forbes valuation piece
• Negative Sentiment: Geopolitical / physical risk to infrastructure: Reports that hyperscaler data centers are becoming military targets in the Iran war increase operational and security risk for cloud operations and potential outages. Data centers targeted
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal headwinds and fee cuts: The Epic Games settlement (lower Play Store commissions) and a high‑profile Gemini wrongful‑death lawsuit raise revenue/margin and liability concerns for consumer services. Play Store settlement Gemini lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory scrutiny on Waymo / AV safety and technical/short‑term chart pressure: NTSB/industry scrutiny of autonomous‑vehicle safety plus technical analysts calling a short thesis add to near‑term selling pressure. Waymo NTSB scrutiny Chart short thesis

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on GOOG. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Raymond James Financial raised Alphabet from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $315.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. DZ Bank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 16th. KeyCorp set a $370.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $343.90.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total transaction of $33,934.88. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,418 shares in the company, valued at $5,580,469.82. This trade represents a 0.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.73, for a total value of $184,038.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 20,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,325,999.52. This trade represents a 2.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock valued at $118,605,094. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company 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.