Hilltop Holdings Inc. Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Hilltop Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 16.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 99,137 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 13,754 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.3% of Hilltop Holdings Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Hilltop Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $24,100,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Delta Asset Management LLC TN increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Delta Asset Management LLC TN now owns 6,153 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,496,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Matisse Capital lifted its position in Alphabet by 0.3% in the third quarter. Matisse Capital now owns 14,814 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,601,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Rialto Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% during the third quarter. Rialto Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,226 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $541,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Hodges Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the third quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,963 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,693,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Finally, Wilkins Miller Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the third quarter. Wilkins Miller Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,052 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $985,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Market perception that Alphabet has shifted from being “hunted” to a “hunter” in the AI race — investors interpret this as improved competitive positioning for search, ads and cloud monetization, supporting near‑to‑midterm growth expectations. Alphabet (GOOG) gained from its shift in the AI race from being ‘hunted’ to being a ‘hunter’
• Positive Sentiment: Google closed its ~$32B acquisition of Wiz — strengthens cloud security capabilities and enterprise positioning, which should help diversify revenue and deepen enterprise cloud relationships over time. Wiz investor unpacks Google’s $32B acquisition
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Needham reiterated a Buy on GOOGL, which can buoy investor sentiment and act as a near‑term catalyst for buying interest. Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC
• Neutral Sentiment: Heavy retail/investor attention and trending stock coverage (Zacks) — increased searches can raise volatility and volume, but are not a direct signal of fundamentals. Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) Is a Trending Stock: Facts to Know Before Betting on It
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short‑interest data shows zero reported short shares and a 0.0 days‑to‑cover — likely a reporting anomaly; not meaningful evidence of decreased bearish positioning.
• Negative Sentiment: EU regulatory risk: European publishers and tech firms are urging the EU to conclude a long antitrust probe and impose a fine on Google over alleged search favoritism — a faster or larger penalty could pressure revenue from search and create operational constraints. Exclusive: European publishers, tech firms urge EU to speed up fine on Google over search

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total value of $284,590.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,955,564. This trade represents a 8.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 2,076,615 shares of company stock worth $107,809,111 over the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on GOOGL. DZ Bank reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, February 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $370.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. China Renaissance upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Moffett Nathanson increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $367.18.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $305.56 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.70 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $349.00. The company’s 50-day moving average is $318.90 and its 200 day moving average is $291.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Alphabet Profile

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.