Empirical Asset Management LLC Buys 4,894 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Empirical Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 35.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 18,836 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,894 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 0.7% of Empirical Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,588,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Horrell Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 100.0% in the second quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 200 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 60.9% during the second quarter. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google rolled out Nano Banana 2, an upgraded AI image generator with faster performance and better text handling — reinforces product leadership for Gemini/search integrations and helps drive user engagement across Google services. Google launches Nano Banana 2
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reportedly struck a multibillion-dollar deal to rent its AI chips (TPUs) to Meta — a direct revenue and margin-positive outcome from Alphabet’s AI infrastructure investments. Google signs multibillion-dollar AI chip deal with Meta
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is securing power supply agreements for data centers (deals with AES and Xcel), which reduces execution risk for its AI/cloud buildout and supports continued capacity expansion. Alphabet Secures Power Deals
• Positive Sentiment: South Korea approved Google’s request to export high?precision map data, opening commercial opportunities for Google Maps and Waymo in a market previously restricted — potential revenue and product expansion tailwind. South Korea approves Google bid
• Positive Sentiment: Heavy investors continue to add to Alphabet: notable buying by billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller was reported — an endorsement that can support sentiment among long-term institutional investors. Druckenmiller buys Alphabet
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst coverage and buy ratings remain favorable (recent upgrades and positive notes on cloud/AI), supporting longer-term upside expectations even after concerns about spending. MarketBeat coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest updates in available feeds show anomalous/zero reporting and NaN changes — appears to be noisy data and unlikely to be driving today’s move. (Data entries flagged as 0/NaN.)
• Negative Sentiment: Belgian competition authorities opened a probe into Google’s online ad pricing practices — a regulatory risk that could pressure ad margins or lead to fines/operational changes in Europe. Belgian watchdog probe
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive pressure intensified after OpenAI raised massive funding with Amazon/Nvidia/Microsoft as backers — concentrates AI competition and could blunt parts of Google’s enterprise opportunity or pricing power. OpenAI record funding report
• Negative Sentiment: Investor cautions: critics (Michael Burry, some options trade services) have flagged Alphabet’s aggressive AI capex and warned of margin pressure — a reminder of downside risk if spending outpaces near-term monetization. Michael Burry on Google’s AI spending

Alphabet Stock Up 1.4%

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $311.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 2.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $350.15. The company has a 50-day moving average of $321.49 and a 200 day moving average of $282.81. The firm has a market cap of $3.77 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. 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 analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.15 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.73, for a total transaction of $184,038.00. Following the sale, the director owned 20,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,325,999.52. This trade represents a 2.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at $3,987,279.15. This trade represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock worth $119,145,289. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $395.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Alphabet from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $315.00 to $400.00 in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $348.00 price objective (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $343.90.

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.