Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. Buys 1,731 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 178.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,702 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,731 shares during the period. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $657,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $21,944,208,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,686,640,000 after purchasing an additional 15,159,273 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 51.7% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,607,232,000 after purchasing an additional 10,843,853 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in Alphabet by 201.3% during the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,547,250 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,153,824,000 after buying an additional 4,374,542 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. New Street Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $346.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price objective (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. BNP Paribas Exane initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, November 24th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $360.00 price target (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $366.57.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large commercial win for Google Cloud — CVS will use Google Cloud to launch an AI‑enabled health platform, a meaningful enterprise contract that validates recurring cloud/AI revenue potential. CVS taps Google Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: Bullish industry/analyst tone on AI adoption — reports projecting large AI spending and recent analyst price‑target increases support a higher long‑term revenue multiple for Google Cloud and Gemini. Gartner Says AI Spending Will Hit $2.5 Trillion
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional backing spotlighted — coverage noting Berkshire Hathaway’s profitable position in Alphabet reinforces confidence from large investors. That can underpin demand for shares. Berkshire Is Sitting On Google Gains
• Neutral Sentiment: Routine insider selling disclosed — small sales by a director and the CAO (hundreds of shares) are noted by the market but are modest relative to their holdings and not uncommon. Frances Arnold Sells 112 Shares
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest reporting appears anomalous (zero/NaN in recent feeds) — no clear short squeeze or covering signal from the data provided. Short interest report (data flagged)
• Negative Sentiment: Play Store settlement cuts commissions — Google will lower Play Store commissions to 20% (plus up to 5% for Google billing), which may reduce Play/Android monetization and is a near‑term revenue headwind. Google settles with Epic Games
• Negative Sentiment: AI safety/legal overhang — a wrongful‑death suit alleges harmful instructions from the Gemini chatbot, creating reputational, regulatory and litigation risk for Alphabet’s AI business. Gemini wrongful-death suit
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo safety and regulatory scrutiny — recent incidents and NTSB probes raise execution and regulatory risk for Alphabet’s autonomous‑driving unit, which could pressure investor sentiment on non‑core bets. Waymo Faces Mounting Scrutiny
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/geopolitical tech pullback — regional tensions and related operational impacts (e.g., Dubai) are compressing tech multiples and weighing on large‑cap names like Alphabet. Rising Tensions Force Tech Pullback

Alphabet Trading Down 0.7%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $300.88 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.64 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.83, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.10. 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 Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $349.00. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $320.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $285.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total transaction of $33,934.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,418 shares in the company, valued at $5,580,469.82. This trade represents a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,079,993 shares of company stock valued at $108,745,244. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.