Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Lowers Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,970,832 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 65,749 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.9% of Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $479,109,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Delta Asset Management LLC TN raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Delta Asset Management LLC TN now owns 6,153 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,496,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Matisse Capital boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Matisse Capital now owns 14,814 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,601,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Rialto Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Rialto Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,226 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $541,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Hodges Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,963 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,693,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avid Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Avid Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,714 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $660,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Arete Research increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. New Street Research boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $354.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Wolfe Research increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp set a $370.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $367.18.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $298.80 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $319.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $286.87. The company has a market capitalization of $3.61 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 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.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis 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%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 20,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,325,999.52. The trade was a 2.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total value of $9,859,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,674,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $508,028,012.80. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 2,112,493 shares of company stock worth $118,605,094 in the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large cloud commercial win — CVS will deploy an AI‑enabled health platform on Google Cloud, validating enterprise demand for recurring cloud/AI revenue and supporting the Google Cloud/Gemini growth story. CVS taps Google Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: AI partnership continuity — Google said Anthropic will remain available for non‑defense projects after DoD actions, limiting disruption to Alphabet’s access to Anthropic models and enterprise AI offerings. Google says Anthropic remains available
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and institutional support — Robert W. Baird lifted its price target to $380 and other firms have boosted targets/ratings recently, reinforcing buy narratives and upside vs. the current price. Baird raises price target
• Neutral Sentiment: Small insider sales — filings show modest sales by a director and the CAO; routine disclosures that markets note but are not large enough to signal strategic conviction changes. SEC filing — insider sales
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary on recent pullback — coverage (e.g., Zacks) highlights the stock’s slide since earnings and asks whether it can rebound, offering investor viewpoints but no new company fundamentals. Zacks — can it rebound?
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/PR overhang: a wrongful‑death lawsuit alleges harmful guidance from the Gemini chatbot, raising potential liability, regulatory scrutiny and reputational risk for Alphabet’s core AI investment thesis. Gemini wrongful‑death lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: Autonomous‑vehicle scrutiny — the NHTSA/NHTSA‑led safety forum and ongoing probes into Waymo incidents increase regulatory risk and operational uncertainty for the self‑driving unit. NHTSA self‑driving safety forum
• Negative Sentiment: App store revenue pressure — a settlement with Epic lowered Play Store commission rates (to ~20% + up to 5%), which could modestly reduce Play‑ecosystem take rates and near‑term revenue. Play Store commission cut
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/geopolitical pressure — recent tensions and tech pullbacks in affected markets (e.g., Dubai exposure) are weighing on large‑cap tech multiples, contributing to negative sentiment around GOOGL. Tech offices respond to U.S.-Iran tensions

Alphabet Company 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.