Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Acquired by Sterling Investment Management LLC

Sterling Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 24,007 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,381 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 4.3% of Sterling Investment Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Sterling Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,533,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Imprint Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth $32,000. Towne Trust Company N.A increased its position in Alphabet by 34.0% during the fourth quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 134 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Capital Management Investments LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 1,438.5% during the fourth quarter. Creative Capital Management Investments LLC now owns 200 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 187 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI and cloud businesses are being cited as key growth drivers, with reports emphasizing strong revenue growth, improving cloud margins, and a large backlog supporting future expansion.
• Positive Sentiment: New product and platform launches, including Googlebook laptops and broader Gemini AI integrations, are reinforcing the view that Alphabet can monetize AI across both software and hardware.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and investor commentary remains upbeat, with multiple bullish ratings, higher price targets, and articles arguing Alphabet still has room to run after its post-earnings surge. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Anthropic plans to spend heavily on Google infrastructure add to the narrative that Alphabet is becoming a central provider of AI compute capacity.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Phillip Securities downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. KeyCorp set a $370.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $362.73.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.5%

GOOG stock opened at $397.17 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $163.33 and a 52-week high of $399.93. The company has a 50-day moving average of $325.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $316.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.25.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $2.43. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.96 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The company’s revenue was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.81 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.28 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 6.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.65, for a total transaction of $348,232.50. Following the transaction, the director owned 3,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,187,638.65. The trade was a 22.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total transaction of $14,341,182.30. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 157,953 shares of company stock valued at $47,767,818 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.