Mason Investment Advisory Services Inc. Boosts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Mason Investment Advisory Services Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 105.9% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,439 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,769 shares during the quarter. Mason Investment Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $838,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Tradewinds LLC. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2,134.8% in the third quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 45,098 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,984,000 after acquiring an additional 43,080 shares in the last quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp grew its holdings in Alphabet by 31.3% during the 3rd quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 354,529 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $86,345,000 after acquiring an additional 84,553 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 157,143 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $38,272,000 after purchasing an additional 3,444 shares during the last quarter. American National Bank of Texas acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $900,000. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,164,341 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $206,542,000 after purchasing an additional 42,028 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.4%

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $311.43 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.77 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $350.15. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $321.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $283.93. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.15 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.77%.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google rolled out Nano Banana 2, an upgraded AI image generator with faster performance and better text handling — reinforces product leadership for Gemini/search integrations and helps drive user engagement across Google services. Google launches Nano Banana 2
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reportedly struck a multibillion-dollar deal to rent its AI chips (TPUs) to Meta — a direct revenue and margin-positive outcome from Alphabet’s AI infrastructure investments. Google signs multibillion-dollar AI chip deal with Meta
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is securing power supply agreements for data centers (deals with AES and Xcel), which reduces execution risk for its AI/cloud buildout and supports continued capacity expansion. Alphabet Secures Power Deals
• Positive Sentiment: South Korea approved Google’s request to export high‑precision map data, opening commercial opportunities for Google Maps and Waymo in a market previously restricted — potential revenue and product expansion tailwind. South Korea approves Google bid
• Positive Sentiment: Heavy investors continue to add to Alphabet: notable buying by billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller was reported — an endorsement that can support sentiment among long-term institutional investors. Druckenmiller buys Alphabet
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst coverage and buy ratings remain favorable (recent upgrades and positive notes on cloud/AI), supporting longer-term upside expectations even after concerns about spending. MarketBeat coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest updates in available feeds show anomalous/zero reporting and NaN changes — appears to be noisy data and unlikely to be driving today’s move. (Data entries flagged as 0/NaN.)
• Negative Sentiment: Belgian competition authorities opened a probe into Google’s online ad pricing practices — a regulatory risk that could pressure ad margins or lead to fines/operational changes in Europe. Belgian watchdog probe
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive pressure intensified after OpenAI raised massive funding with Amazon/Nvidia/Microsoft as backers — concentrates AI competition and could blunt parts of Google’s enterprise opportunity or pricing power. OpenAI record funding report
• Negative Sentiment: Investor cautions: critics (Michael Burry, some options trade services) have flagged Alphabet’s aggressive AI capex and warned of margin pressure — a reminder of downside risk if spending outpaces near-term monetization. Michael Burry on Google’s AI spending

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total value of $35,060,852.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,112,380 shares of company stock valued at $119,112,888. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $345.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $365.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, January 5th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 price target (up from $355.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Pivotal Research reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $420.00 price target (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $343.90.

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.