DLK Investment Management LLC Sells 2,477 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

DLK Investment Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 61,912 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,477 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 7.2% of DLK Investment Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest holding. DLK Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $19,428,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Imprint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $32,000. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $40,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 145.0% during the third quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 196 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 56.8% during the third quarter. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC now owns 218 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOG. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $345.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. KeyCorp set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, January 5th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised shares of Alphabet from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $315.00 to $400.00 in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $345.71.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total transaction of $318,580.50. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,405,091.71. This trade represents a 18.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the transaction, the insider owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,987,279.15. The trade was a 78.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,092,234 shares of company stock valued at $112,487,971 over the last quarter. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street bullishness — analysts have raised or reiterated high price targets (Wells Fargo lift tied to Google Cloud monetization; Needham reaffirmed a $400 target), supporting upside expectations for GOOG. Wells Fargo Raises PT on Alphabet Needham Reiterates Buy
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional and notable investor interest — long‑running D. E. Shaw position and reported bets from prominent investors (e.g., Paul Tudor Jones, Stanley Druckenmiller) are read as confidence in Alphabet’s AI/cloud growth story. D. E. Shaw Is Bullish
• Positive Sentiment: AI product & efficiency catalysts — launches and upgrades (Veo 3.1 Lite, Lyria 3 Pro) plus claims of large memory‑efficiency gains (TurboQuant) improve competitive positioning and lower AI operating costs, which supports Google Cloud margins and investor sentiment. Veo 3.1 Lite Lyria 3 Pro AI efficiency / market reaction
• Positive Sentiment: Macro / flow support — broad risk‑on session and gains in tech heavy ETFs (QQQ, SPY contributors) are lifting mega‑caps like GOOG as index momentum and passive flows benefit large holdings. ETF/Index flow contribution
• Neutral Sentiment: Longer‑term cloud/ad market tailwinds — coverage pieces highlight Google Cloud’s rapid revenue/backlog growth and a secular rise in digital ad spend, which are supportive fundamentals but are already priced in to some extent. Digital ad spend theme Cloud & AI infra context
• Neutral Sentiment: New hardware/service experiments (e.g., screenless Fitbit band with subscription model) point to product diversification but are early stage for revenue impact. Fitbit band report
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and content risks — groups of child‑development experts and some governments are pressing Google/YouTube over AI‑generated content for kids; Indonesia has summoned Google over child social media curbs — these raise reputational and compliance risk for YouTube monetization. Experts urge YouTube action Indonesia summons Google
• Negative Sentiment: Legal worries & insider selling — ongoing legal headlines and repeated insider sales (documented filings) create short‑term volatility and investor caution. Legal woes piece Insider sale

Alphabet Trading Up 2.8%

Alphabet stock opened at $294.90 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $310.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $296.32. The company has a market capitalization of $3.57 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.13. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $350.15. 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:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. 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 the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.15 EPS. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

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.