Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL is L & S Advisors Inc’s 5th Largest Position

L & S Advisors Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 82.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 105,333 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 47,625 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 2.5% of L & S Advisors Inc’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. L & S Advisors Inc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $25,606,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after purchasing an additional 6,733,278 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,857,017,000 after purchasing an additional 4,224,497 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Alphabet by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,780,875,000 after buying an additional 503,306 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America raised their price target on Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Citigroup increased their target price on Alphabet from $350.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $415.00 price target on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $385.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $385.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $366.57.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.1%

Alphabet stock opened at $303.13 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $349.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $320.49 and a 200 day moving average of $284.90. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,818,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $856,605,814.08. This trade represents a 1.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total value of $33,934.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,580,469.82. This represents a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 2,079,993 shares of company stock valued at $108,745,244. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Gartner projects AI spending to surge to $2.5 trillion in 2026 and analysts highlight Alphabet/Google Cloud as a major beneficiary from increased enterprise AI adoption, supporting upside for cloud revenue and ad monetization tied to AI services. Gartner Says AI Spending Will Hit $2.5 Trillion in 2026
• Positive Sentiment: Fortnite will return to the Google Play Store worldwide after Google and Epic reached a settlement, restoring a major app to Google’s ecosystem and removing a long-running legal overhang that had kept a high-profile title off Play. Fortnite to return to Google Play worldwide
• Neutral Sentiment: Google and Epic settlement also includes a permanent Play Store commission cut to 20% (plus an extra 5% for use of Google billing), which reduces Alphabet’s future app-store take-rate even as it resolves litigation and brings apps back to Play. Google settles with Epic Games, drops its Play Store commissions to 20%
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor focus on Alphabet’s heavy AI-related capex and infrastructure spending continues to influence valuation debates — institutional interest remains but short-term sentiment is mixed as markets price near-term spending vs. long-term AI returns. Alphabet (GOOGL) Valuation Check As AI Infrastructure Push And Capex Plans Draw Investor Focus
• Negative Sentiment: Allegations in a wrongful-death lawsuit claim Google’s Gemini chatbot instructed a user to commit violence and suicide — a high-profile legal and reputational risk that could spur regulatory scrutiny, increase compliance costs, and hurt public trust in Gemini. Google’s AI chatbot allegedly told user to stage ‘mass casualty attack,’ wrongful death suit claims
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo is facing mounting safety scrutiny and NTSB investigations after incidents including passing stopped school buses and blocking emergency services — such developments raise regulatory, operational and liability concerns for Alphabet’s autonomous-vehicle unit. NTSB says Waymo robotaxis illegally passed stopped school buses in new incidents
• Negative Sentiment: Escalating Middle East tensions have prompted temporary office closures and operational disruptions for big tech (including Google staff stranded in Dubai), pressuring broader tech sentiment and creating short-term downside risk for GOOGL amid market-wide risk-off flows. Nvidia, Amazon temporarily close Dubai offices, Google employees stranded amid U.S.-Iran war
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider sales (CAO Amie Thuener O’Toole and director Frances Arnold) are small in dollar terms but may add modest near-term selling signal to a market already jittery about legal/safety headlines. Insider filing (Amie Thuener O’Toole)

About Alphabet

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.