Empirical Asset Management LLC Raises Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Empirical Asset Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 103.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,891 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,571 shares during the quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,620,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake 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 worth $91,033,300,000 after buying an additional 6,733,278 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after acquiring an additional 4,008,374 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,857,017,000 after acquiring an additional 4,224,497 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth about $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,780,875,000 after acquiring an additional 503,306 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google is rolling out Agent Designer / AI agents on the Pentagon’s GenAI.mil portal, letting millions of DoD staff build unclassified digital assistants for administrative tasks — a direct path to cloud and services revenue from government contracts. Note the deployment occurs amid legal friction with Anthropic, which adds complexity but not immediate revenue headwinds. Google deepens Pentagon AI push after Anthropic sues Trump administration
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple outlets report Google deploying AI agents to help the Pentagon automate jobs — reinforcing the same revenue/scale thesis for Google Cloud and enterprise AI products. Google Deploys AI Agents to Help Pentagon Automate Jobs
• Positive Sentiment: MarketBeat flags a technical reset: the stock has pulled back toward a $300 support zone and may be forming a higher low — a potential entry for long-term investors if key moving averages are reclaimed. Institutional inflows and bullish analyst targets underpin this view. Alphabet’s Pullback May Be Opening a New Entry Point
• Positive Sentiment: Google and Tesla joined others to launch Utilize, aiming to change grid usage/regulation — a strategic partnership that could open enterprise opportunities for Google’s software and energy-related services. Google and Tesla think we’re managing the electrical grid all wrong
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street commentary shows renewed target activity and modest upgrades that support upside expectations — helpful for sentiment while the stock digests the pullback. Wall Street analyst updates Google stock price target for next 12 months
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest reports in the dataset show anomalous zero/NaN values and 0 days-to-cover — appears to be data/reporting noise rather than a market signal. (No external link available.)
• Neutral Sentiment: Media pieces weigh whether GOOGL’s current level is a breakout or a value trap and sketch buy strategies around lower prices — useful for positioning but not immediate catalysts. GOOGL Stock At $300: Is This A Breakout Or A Value Trap?
• Negative Sentiment: Reports highlight Sundar Pichai’s $692M compensation package tied to long-shot projects that aren’t currently revenue-generating — a governance/expense concern that can weigh on sentiment. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai’s new $692 million compensation package hinges on two moonshots
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: CEO disclosed roughly $9.86M in stock sales — a modest negative signal for investor optics (typical for executives exercising/monetizing holdings but worth monitoring). Insider Selling: Alphabet CEO Sells Stock
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive risk: coverage noting Microsoft’s dual-model AI strategy and Azure momentum underscores tougher competition for cloud/AI workloads — a sector-level headwind for GOOGL’s cloud positioning. Microsoft Positioned to Win AI Race With Dual-Model Strategy

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total value of $9,859,850.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,674,560 shares in the company, valued at $508,028,012.80. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 955 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total value of $284,590.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 9,918 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,955,564. This represents a 8.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 2,112,493 shares of company stock valued at $118,605,094 in the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $307.04 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $319.65 and a 200 day moving average of $288.33. The firm has a market cap of $3.71 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.40, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $349.00.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued 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 currently 7.77%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on GOOGL. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up from $365.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Moffett Nathanson upped their target price on Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 target price (up from $325.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Truist Financial set a $385.00 price target on Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their price target on Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $367.18.

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.