PFG Private Wealth Management LLC Decreases Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

PFG Private Wealth Management LLC cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 80.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,321 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 5,329 shares during the quarter. PFG Private Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $415,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Tradewinds LLC. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2,134.8% in the third quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 45,098 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,984,000 after purchasing an additional 43,080 shares during the last quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 29,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,381,000 after buying an additional 2,341 shares during the last quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 31.3% in the third quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 354,529 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $86,345,000 after buying an additional 84,553 shares during the period. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the third quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 221,391 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,920,000 after buying an additional 2,009 shares during the period. Finally, American National Bank of Texas bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $900,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $294.46 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.56 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $309.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $297.25. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $350.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.15 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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 $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.77%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $365.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, January 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $348.00 target price (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $345.71.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google rolled out Gemma 4, an open‑source AI model family that strengthens Google’s developer ecosystem and supports future cloud/AI revenue opportunities. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Google updated Gemini API pricing with “Flex” and “Priority” tiers to balance speed, cost and reliability — that could broaden usage, enable more price‑sensitive workloads, and boost API adoption/revenue. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Technical advances like TurboQuant (memory/compression for large models) can lower infrastructure costs for AI workloads and improve margins over time — a structural benefit to Google’s cloud/AI economics. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Wells Fargo and other analysts remain constructive (Overweight/Buy) but have trimmed price targets — signaling confidence in the long run while dialing back near‑term expectations. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market/ETF flows continue to amplify Alphabet’s moves (SPY/QQQ dynamics): macro risk‑on/off days can create outsized short‑term volatility for big caps. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Big Tech H‑1B filings have fallen, reflecting broader hiring freezes/reshuffling across the sector — not an Alphabet‑specific revenue issue but a labor/strategy signal. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Turkey’s competition authority opened an investigation into Google’s advertising and billing practices — regulatory probes risk fines, remedial costs and local ad‑revenue disruption. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s principal accounting officer, Amie Thuener O’Toole, is leaving (joining Broadcom as CFO) — departure of a senior finance leader creates some short‑term transition risk for controls and reporting. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Semianalysis warned heavy AI capex could push Google’s free cash flow toward zero next year — investors sensitive to FCF may penalize valuation if spending outpaces monetization. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider selling by senior executives (e.g., John Kent Walker) adds to near‑term negative sentiment, especially amid market sensitivity to insider activity. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Broader legal pressure on platforms (recent cases challenging Section 230 protections) raises regulatory and litigation risk for YouTube/Google content/ad products. Read More.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total transaction of $9,877,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,818,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $856,605,814.08. This represents a 1.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 2,101,844 shares of company stock valued at $115,147,751 over the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.