Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stock Position Reduced by Advisory Services Network LLC

Advisory Services Network LLC reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 257,829 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,593 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 0.9% of Advisory Services Network LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Advisory Services Network LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $62,678,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter worth $21,944,208,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $4,338,397,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,686,640,000 after buying an additional 15,159,273 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,910,542,000 after buying an additional 11,605,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 51.7% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,607,232,000 after buying an additional 10,843,853 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total value of $284,590.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 9,918 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,955,564. This represents a 8.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.73, for a total transaction of $184,038.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 20,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,325,999.52. This represents a 2.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 2,076,615 shares of company stock valued at $107,809,111 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wells Fargo and other analysts have moved upbeat on Alphabet, citing stronger AI and cloud positioning and raising price targets, supporting investor optimism about future revenue and compute advantage. Alphabet (GOOGL) Sees Optimistic Coverage From Analysts
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet paid its first 2026 dividend of $0.21 per share on March 16, a concrete cash return that can support demand from income-oriented investors. Google stock just paid dividends; here’s how much investors received
• Positive Sentiment: Research houses continue to reiterate buy/overweight ratings (Needham reiterated a buy), reinforcing buy-side conviction and supporting price momentum. Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC
• Positive Sentiment: Google procurement teams reportedly visited China to discuss buying liquid cooling gear from local suppliers — a sign of continued data‑center expansion and potential cost/efficiency gains for its cloud and AI compute footprint. Google in talks with China’s Envicool, others to buy data centre cooling systems, sources say
• Neutral Sentiment: Multiple market write-ups (Zacks, Yahoo, Motley Fool summaries) note Alphabet as a trending/overperforming stock due to AI and cloud tailwinds, keeping the name in retail and institutional screens but not providing new catalysts. Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) Outperforms Broader Market: What You Need to Know
• Negative Sentiment: European publishers and tech firms are pressing the EU to accelerate a probe and impose a fine over alleged search favoritism, creating regulatory uncertainty that could pressure margins or fines down the road. Exclusive: European publishers, tech firms urge EU to speed up fine on Google over search
• Negative Sentiment: Some analysts flag valuation and near‑term margin pressure as capex for AI compute ramps and higher operating costs could limit upside despite growth, a narrative that may cap multiple expansion. Is Alphabet Stock’s 25.55X PE Still Worth it? Buy, Sell, or Hold?

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Argus lifted their price target on Alphabet from $365.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price objective (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Wall Street Zen lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Alphabet from $370.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $367.18.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $310.92 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.76 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.76, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 2.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $349.00. The company has a 50-day moving average of $318.83 and a 200 day moving average of $291.74.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

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.