Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS Grows Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 13.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 42,357 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,053 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 3.5% of Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $13,258,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth approximately $53,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Corsicana & Co. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Finally, Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: DeepMind hired Jasjeet Sekhon, Bridgewater’s chief scientist, as chief strategy officer — a high‑profile talent win that reinforces Alphabet’s DeepMind AI bench and long‑term product roadmap. Exclusive: Bridgewater’s chief scientist Sekhon to join Google’s DeepMind AI unit
• Positive Sentiment: High‑profile endorsement: Elon Musk tweeted that Google will “win the AI race in the West,” a bullish signal for market perception of Alphabet’s AI leadership. Elon Musk Says China Will Win The AI Race, But Here’s Where SpaceX Will Win
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum: Google’s new “Stitch” AI design features are pressuring rivals (e.g., Figma’s stock fell), underscoring expanding addressable market for Google’s AI tools. Figma’s stock drops 11% in two days after Google releases ‘vibe design’ product
• Positive Sentiment: Market commentary highlights Alphabet’s operational strength (consecutive earnings beats, Cloud acceleration), supporting the bullish analyst consensus and relative outperformance among mega‑caps. 2 Tech Giants Holding Their Ground While the Market Slides
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider sales disclosed: CEO Sundar Pichai sold ~32,500 shares (~$10M) and Director John Hennessy sold a small stake — notable but small relative to total insider holdings; monitor if these continue. Insider filing: Sundar Pichai sale
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest data in the feeds appears anomalous/zero and provides no clear signal (no days‑to‑cover build reported).
• Neutral Sentiment: Competitive takes: Analysts compare Snowflake and Alphabet on cloud analytics — SNOW’s momentum is notable but doesn’t negate Google Cloud’s growth trajectory. Snowflake vs Alphabet: Which Cloud Analytics Stock Has an Edge Now?
• Negative Sentiment: Investor concern about massive hyperscaler AI spending — analysts flag $410B+ capex across hyperscalers and question near‑term returns, a theme that can pressure tech multiples including GOOGL. Forget the War Headlines: This Is the Real Reason Tech Stocks Are Struggling
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation debate persists: coverage notes shifting investment story as AI deals and capex raise questions about near‑term upside despite solid fundamentals. How The Alphabet (GOOGL) Investment Story Is Shifting With AI Deals And Valuation Questions

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Roth Mkm increased their price target on Alphabet from $365.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. BNP Paribas Exane initiated 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. President Capital increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $323.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $415.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Pivotal Research boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total value of $318,580.50. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,631 shares in the company, valued at $1,405,091.71. The trade was a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total value of $284,590.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,955,564. This trade represents a 8.78% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,110,165 shares of company stock valued at $118,134,117. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.0%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $301.00 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.64 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.84, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year 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 business’s fifty day moving average is $317.62 and its 200-day moving average is $293.14.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly 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 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 research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 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.