North Star Asset Management Inc. Makes New $24.87 Million Investment in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

North Star Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 69,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $24,871,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Providence Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Providence Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,508 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,094,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. One Charles Private Wealth Services LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. One Charles Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 4,844 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,390,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Wisconsin Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Wisconsin Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,223 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $785,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Cannon Financial Strategists Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Cannon Financial Strategists Inc. now owns 1,589 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $499,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Enhancement Group LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2.3% in the first quarter. Financial Enhancement Group LLC now owns 1,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $380,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $418.00 to $411.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. DZ Bank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “buy” rating and issued a $475.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Alphabet from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group set a $450.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $415.55.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

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%

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $332.03 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $4.06 trillion, a P/E ratio of 16.68, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $347.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $340.34. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $206.96 and a 12-month high of $404.47.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.42%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

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

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.