Crestwood Advisors Group LLC Lowers Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Crestwood Advisors Group LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 790,479 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 11,402 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 3.3% of Crestwood Advisors Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $192,166,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $21,944,208,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 15,159,273 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 51.7% during the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,607,232,000 after buying an additional 10,843,853 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after buying an additional 6,733,278 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 201.3% during the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,547,250 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,153,824,000 after buying an additional 4,374,542 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $303.58 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.08, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $320.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $284.77. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $349.00.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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 paid 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 dividend payout ratio is 7.77%.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Big, sustained AI and cloud investment supports long-term growth thesis: reports show Alphabet is among the large tech players pouring billions into AI infrastructure and chips, reinforcing expectations for continued revenue/market-share gains in AI services. Microsoft and Alphabet Spend Billions On AI: A Closer Look
• Positive Sentiment: Product and infrastructure wins — Google Cloud strong growth and strategic partnerships (including Rakuten integration and recent mapping/export approvals and clean-energy data centers) underline secular revenue drivers and operational resilience. Alphabet (GOOGL) Valuation Check As AI Infrastructure Push And Capex Plans Draw Investor Focus
• Neutral Sentiment: Heightened investor attention and analyst commentary keep stock in focus — multiple pieces note strong interest and differing views on valuation vs. capex plans; this raises volatility but not a clear directional signal. Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) is Attracting Investor Attention: Here is What You Should Know
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data in feeds is showing anomalous/zero values and should be treated as noise rather than a market-moving signal for now.
• Negative Sentiment: Geopolitical risk hit sentiment today: tech firms temporarily closed Middle East offices and markets sold off amid rising U.S.-Iran tensions, prompting defensive positioning that weighs on high-beta, growth names like Alphabet. Nvidia, Amazon temporarily close Dubai offices, Google employees stranded amid U.S.-Iran war
• Negative Sentiment: Employee and policy scrutiny over military use of AI (letters and internal pressure) could complicate government contracts and public perception as Google negotiates over Gemini-related work with the Pentagon. Google employees call for military limits on AI amid Iran strikes, Anthropic fallout
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/safety risk from Waymo: the NTSB is probing incidents of Waymo vehicles illegally passing stopped school buses — a development that raises liability, regulatory scrutiny and reputational risk for Alphabet’s autonomous-vehicle ambitions. NTSB says Waymo robotaxis illegally passed stopped school buses in new incidents

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Argus raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $365.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Truist Financial set a $385.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $354.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their target price on Alphabet from $320.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $366.57.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at $3,987,279.15. This trade represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total transaction of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,798,832.60. This represents a 23.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 2,078,926 shares of company stock worth $108,426,720 in the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.