Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Acquires 5,751 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 98,395 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,751 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.1% of Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $30,798,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. State Street Corp raised its position in Alphabet by 1.8% during 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 during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth about $21,944,208,000. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 50,732,476 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,333,076,000 after purchasing an additional 6,874,381 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 45,186,112 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,984,744,000 after buying an additional 1,034,292 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Roth Mkm boosted their price target on Alphabet from $365.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $360.00 price objective (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.33.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $295.77 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The business has a fifty day moving average of $309.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $296.92. The stock has a market cap of $3.58 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.36, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.12. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 7.77%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total transaction of $318,580.50. Following the sale, the director owned 4,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,405,091.71. This represents a 18.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,101,844 shares of company stock valued at $115,147,751. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

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

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.