Cullen Capital Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Cullen Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 23.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,601 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,003 shares during the quarter. Cullen Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,577,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Corsicana & Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $63,000. Finally, Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 37.9% during the second quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $303.33 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.09. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $349.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $320.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $277.29.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. President Capital raised their target price on Alphabet from $323.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. BNP Paribas Exane assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 price objective on the stock. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up from $365.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $363.10.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $34,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,224,380. This represents a 0.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $335.18, for a total transaction of $10,893,350.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,179,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $730,481,906.96. The trade was a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,032,408 shares of company stock valued at $94,926,707. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway kept its Alphabet stake while cutting Amazon — a high-profile endorsement of Alphabet’s cloud/AI strategy that investors view as a vote of confidence. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic demand signal: India’s Adani Group plans a massive AI data-center investment with Google and others, implying future hyperscaler cloud demand in a large growth market. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product roadmap: Google I/O set for May (expectations for AI glasses and other AI-driven consumer launches) provides a visible catalyst for new product monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Operational/ESG tailwind: a long-term geothermal PPA will supply Google’s Nevada operations, supporting data-center resilience and sustainability goals. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Waymo oversight: Waymo defended its use of remote-assistance workers to Congress, which clarifies operations but leaves regulatory attention intact. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Product refresh: Google introduced the $499 Pixel 10a with AI features — positive for device ecosystem but modest near-term revenue impact versus cloud/ads. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider activity: Director John Hennessy sold 600 shares (small dollar amount relative to market cap) — noted by the market but not a material red flag. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: High-profile trimming: Terry Smith (Fundsmith) reportedly cut about half of his Alphabet position — a headline that can create short-term selling pressure or signal rotation. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/strategy risk: Analysts and coverage flag near-term pullback due to Alphabet’s elevated AI/compute CapEx and broader megacap rotation; some pieces call the stock in correction territory. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Service reliability: a recent YouTube outage (tens of thousands affected) briefly tests trust in Google’s consumer platforms and could draw short-term media attention. Read More.

Alphabet Profile

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.