Marietta Investment Partners LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Marietta Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 33.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,976 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,018 shares during the period. Marietta Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,917,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Ignite Planners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the second quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 14,506 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,697,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.4% in the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 594,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $105,540,000 after acquiring an additional 41,132 shares during the period. Trillium Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.6% in the second quarter. Trillium Asset Management LLC now owns 13,210 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,343,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SNS Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the second quarter. SNS Financial Group LLC now owns 13,477 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,391,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the company’s 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 directly owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.21, for a total transaction of $10,439,325.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,244,372 shares in the company, valued at $720,914,730.12. This represents a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 2,112,493 shares of company stock valued at $118,605,094 in the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large enterprise/cloud wins and AI demand: Google Cloud deals (CVS health AI platform) and reported TPU leasing by Meta point to higher recurring cloud revenue and infrastructure utilization that support near?term revenue growth. CVS taps Google Cloud Meta leases Google TPUs
• Positive Sentiment: Solid fundamentals/analyst support: Q4 results and earnings beats reinforce the “quality growth” narrative, and Bank of America’s reiterated Buy/$370 target keeps bull case intact. Q4 quality growth Bank of America maintains $370
• Neutral Sentiment: Anthropic access clarified: Google says Anthropic remains available for non?defense uses after a DoD blacklist — this reduces near?term disruption risk to customers but leaves policy uncertainty around defense contracts. Google on Anthropic availability
• Neutral Sentiment: Market narrative shifting: Analysts note GOOG’s strong 12?month run has moved it from a “value” label to an execution/AI?growth story — bullish if growth continues, but raises expectations. Forbes valuation piece
• Negative Sentiment: Geopolitical / physical risk to infrastructure: Reports that hyperscaler data centers are becoming military targets in the Iran war increase operational and security risk for cloud operations and potential outages. Data centers targeted
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal headwinds and fee cuts: The Epic Games settlement (lower Play Store commissions) and a high?profile Gemini wrongful?death lawsuit raise revenue/margin and liability concerns for consumer services. Play Store settlement Gemini lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory scrutiny on Waymo / AV safety and technical/short?term chart pressure: NTSB/industry scrutiny of autonomous?vehicle safety plus technical analysts calling a short thesis add to near?term selling pressure. Waymo NTSB scrutiny Chart short thesis

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Truist Financial set a $350.00 price objective on Alphabet in a report on Friday, December 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Alphabet from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $343.90.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $298.30 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.61 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $350.15. The business’s fifty day moving average is $320.28 and its 200 day moving average is $286.23. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The firm’s revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.15 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

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.