AE Wealth Management LLC Raises Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

AE Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 93,393 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,793 shares during the quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $22,746,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Financial Security Advisor Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 2.7% in the third quarter. Financial Security Advisor Inc. now owns 7,097 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,728,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the period. Addison Capital Co increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.6% during the 3rd quarter. Addison Capital Co now owns 3,845 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $936,000 after purchasing an additional 490 shares during the last quarter. Activest Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 7,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,948,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% in the third quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 76,183 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,554,000 after purchasing an additional 1,012 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Flossbach Von Storch SE lifted its stake in Alphabet by 12.6% in the third quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE now owns 2,239 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $545,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat on revenue and EPS with accelerating Search and Cloud growth — Search ~17% YoY, Cloud growth near 48% and a doubled Cloud backlog point to durable demand and stronger monetization. Alphabet: Full Valuation, Full Speed
• Positive Sentiment: Large enterprise/cloud wins and Gemini deployments (e.g., Liberty Global, Humana) validate Google Cloud monetization and AI product traction. Liberty Global-Google Cloud deal
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo’s big $16B funding round and $126B valuation increase Alphabet’s optionality outside ads and support longer-term upside. Waymo funding
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades, higher price targets and continued institutional buying reflect confidence in AI/Search/Cloud upside. Analyst coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Management declined to discuss specific AI partnerships (e.g., Google-Apple Siri deal) on the earnings call, leaving partnership details uncertain for investors. TechCrunch: Google-Apple AI deal
• Neutral Sentiment: Options and pre/post-earnings positioning implied a sizable move; next direction likely depends on how investors weigh capex vs. revenue/margin trends. Earnings preview/prediction markets
• Negative Sentiment: The $175–$185B 2026 capex guide was the primary negative catalyst — far above Street expectations and seen as a near-term earnings/cash-flow risk that sparked selling pressure. Reuters: capex guidance
• Negative Sentiment: Investors also noted a slight YouTube ad revenue softness and the scale of AI spending, which together raised near-term execution and margin questions. Invezz: post-earnings dip
• Negative Sentiment: Insider and some institutional selling (CAO SEC filing noted) adds to short-term sentiment pressure around a high valuation. SEC insider filing

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $34,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,307 shares in the company, valued at $6,224,380. The trade was a 0.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.52, for a total value of $202,512.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 21,224 shares in the company, valued at $7,163,524.48. This trade represents a 2.75% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 2,037,964 shares of company stock worth $95,259,727 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Wolfe Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. DA Davidson set a $300.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Pivotal Research reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $330.83.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $333.34 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $350.15. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $322.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $269.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%.The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.15 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Alphabet

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.