Clearstead Advisors LLC Raises Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Clearstead Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 319,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 12,657 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.0% of Clearstead Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Clearstead Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $77,614,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at $53,000. Corsicana & Co. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at $54,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 37.9% during the 2nd 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. Finally, S&T Bank PA grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 40.2% during the 2nd quarter. S&T Bank PA now owns 345 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about 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

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total transaction of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at $2,798,832.60. The trade was a 23.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.21, for a total transaction of $10,439,325.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,244,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $720,914,730.12. The trade was a 1.43% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock valued at $118,605,094 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Loop Capital increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $320.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial set a $415.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $367.18.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $298.80 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $319.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $286.87. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $349.00. The company has a market cap of $3.61 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.64, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.10.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.77%.

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.