Smith Thornton Advisors LLC Lowers Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Smith Thornton Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 12.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,409 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,438 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 2.8% of Smith Thornton Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Smith Thornton Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,449,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $416,217,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 13.9% in the third quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,277,000 after acquiring an additional 7,180 shares during the period. Sovran Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 23.6% in the third quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,401,000 after purchasing an additional 4,241 shares during the last quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.7% during the 2nd quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 1,457,732 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $256,896,000 after purchasing an additional 65,439 shares during the period. Finally, Wright Investors Service Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 21.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 50,064 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,171,000 after purchasing an additional 8,746 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $397.00 to $361.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 target price (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. DZ Bank reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, February 16th. Finally, KeyCorp set a $370.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $367.33.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive — Wells Fargo kept an overweight rating (while trimming targets), and other outlets highlight Buy/Outperform views that point to meaningful upside from cloud/AI monetization. Wells Fargo Raised the PT on Alphabet Inc (GOOGL), Maintains a Buy Rating
• Positive Sentiment: Product/efficiency wins: Google’s Gemma 4 and the TurboQuant algorithm reduce model memory needs and improve on‑device/model efficiency — strengthens competitive moat and could lower operating costs for AI services. Google’s Gemma 4 brings AI superpowers to your device Google’s TurboQuant Breakthrough Just Rewrote the AI Playbook
• Positive Sentiment: Fundamental/earnings confidence: coverage from Zacks and others flags Alphabet’s earnings growth and price strength as reasons to watch the stock heading into earnings season. Earnings Growth & Price Strength Make Alphabet (GOOGL) a Stock to Watch
• Neutral Sentiment: Talent movement: Broadcom named Alphabet executive Amie Thuener as its next CFO — notable departure to monitor but not an immediate earnings event. Broadcom taps Alphabet executive Amie Thuener as next CFO
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory probe in Turkey: the Turkish Competition Board opened an investigation into Google’s advertising and billing practices — potential fines, business restrictions or remediation costs could hit ad revenue/operations in the region. Turkey launches investigation into Google over advertising, billing practices
• Negative Sentiment: Legal risk rises as Section 230 liability narrows: recent court losses for platforms (including YouTube/Google units) increase the probability of costly litigation and moderation compliance burdens. Meta, Google under attack as court cases bypass 30-year-old legal shield
• Negative Sentiment: Near‑term cash‑flow and capex concern: industry commentary warns that hyperscaler AI capex could push Google’s free cash flow toward zero next year — elevates execution and financing risk until monetization of AI investments scales. Semianalysis CEO: Google’s free cash flow will hit zero next year from AI capex
• Negative Sentiment: Operational/ESG risk from data‑center power strategy: reporting that hyperscalers (including Google) are building large natural‑gas plants to power AI centers raises reputational, regulatory and long‑term transition risks. AI companies are building huge natural gas plants to power data centers. What could go wrong?
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: an SEC filing shows a senior exec sold ~9k shares in late March — modest in dollar terms but can be read negatively by short‑term traders. Insider Selling: Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Insider Sells 8,993 Shares of Stock

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total value of $2,481,078.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares in the company, valued at $14,293,309.12. This represents a 14.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total transaction of $318,580.50. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,405,091.71. This trade represents a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 2,101,844 shares of company stock valued at $115,147,751 in the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $295.77 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.58 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.36, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.12. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $349.00. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $309.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $296.27. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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 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.