North Star Asset Management Inc. Purchases New Shares in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

North Star Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 197,701 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $69,854,000. Alphabet makes up approximately 2.7% of North Star Asset Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $29,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Imprint Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Bard Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on GOOG shares. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $418.00 to $411.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $420.00 price objective (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Freedom Capital upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Phillip Securities raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $415.55.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google DeepMind is reportedly preparing to release Gemini 3.8 Flash as early as this week. Internal testing suggests the model narrows Google’s coding-performance gap with OpenAI and Anthropic, potentially improving Alphabet’s position in enterprise AI and software development. New Google AI Model Said to Narrow Gap on Coding Ability
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet-owned Waymo launched public robotaxi service in Denver, San Diego and Tampa, expanding its commercial operations to 14 U.S. cities. The rollout strengthens Alphabet’s long-term autonomous-driving opportunity as competition with Amazon’s Zoox and Tesla intensifies. Waymo accelerates robotaxi expansion
• Positive Sentiment: Google signed a 396-megawatt geothermal power agreement with Fervo Energy, supporting reliable, carbon-free electricity for data-center growth and its AI infrastructure strategy. Fervo signs geothermal power deal with Google
• Neutral Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway made Alphabet its third-largest holding after reducing Bank of America exposure. The move provides a high-profile vote of confidence, but commentary questioning whether Alphabet is fully valued limits its immediate impact. Alphabet becomes Berkshire’s third-largest holding
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that Meta’s AI advertising products and OpenAI’s rapidly growing ad business could threaten Google Search’s advertising dominance and future ad growth. Competition threatens Google Search advertising
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s planned AI infrastructure spending—reportedly potentially reaching $205 billion this year—is raising concerns about depreciation, free cash flow and operating margins despite strong cloud and AI-driven revenue growth. Big Tech AI spending and depreciation concerns
• Negative Sentiment: EU regulators are examining Google’s proposed AI-search publisher opt-out, while a reported £260 million U.K. app-store settlement underscores continuing antitrust and regulatory exposure. EU regulators examine Google AI-search opt-out

Alphabet Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $332.03 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $347.23 and its 200-day moving average is $340.34. The stock has a market cap of $4.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.68, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.23. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $206.96 and a twelve month high of $404.47. The company has a quick ratio of 2.64, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.87 by $6.24. The business had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $116.53 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 24.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.31 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.5 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.71, for a total transaction of $27,692.22. Following the sale, the director owned 18,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,414,801.45. This trade represents a 0.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 118,138 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.90, for a total value of $2,232,808.20. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 451,925 shares of company stock worth $12,371,544 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.