McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC Invests $391,000 in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 1,610 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $391,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $31,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. increased its position in Alphabet by 36.4% in the 2nd quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Corsicana & Co. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $54,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 37.9% in the second quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 77.6% in the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 348 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.45, for a total transaction of $31,971.90. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,706,357.25. This trade represents a 0.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $308.19, for a total transaction of $184,914.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,206,872.04. This trade represents a 13.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 225,187 shares of company stock valued at $66,695,036. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 1st. Wolfe Research set a $380.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, December 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Alphabet from $260.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $350.00 price objective (up previously from $320.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, December 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.19.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $328.57 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $306.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $248.74. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $330.83. The firm has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%.The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 8.28%.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI & advertising momentum: Analysts and media posit that Alphabet’s Gemini/AI-search progress and a strong advertising engine are driving a renewed rally and expectations that the company can join the $4 trillion market-cap group. Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence Stock Will Become a Member of the $4 Trillion Club in 2026
• Positive Sentiment: Market-cap milestone: Alphabet has overtaken Apple to become the world’s second-most valuable public company — a status shift that can attract index/ETF flows and underpins momentum. Google Claims Apple’s Spot on Most-Valuable-Companies List
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street upgrades: Multiple analysts have raised price targets and issued bullish notes heading into 2026, reinforcing institutional demand and supporting higher valuations. Analyst revises Google stock price target for the next 12 months
• Neutral Sentiment: Wiz acquisition pending EU decision: The EU will decide on Alphabet’s $32B Wiz buy by Feb. 10 — resolution will remove a major overhang but could bring remedies or conditions. EU antitrust regulators to decide on Google’s Wiz deal by February 10
• Neutral Sentiment: Lawsuit settlements on AI chatbots: Alphabet and Character.AI settled suits tied to minors’ harm, which reduces immediate legal uncertainty but keeps reputational and regulatory scrutiny active. Google and Character.AI to Settle Lawsuit Over Teenager’s Death
• Negative Sentiment: App-store pressure from U.S. senators: Three Democratic senators urged Apple and Google to suspend Elon Musk’s X and Grok apps after allegations that Grok-enabled image generation facilitated sexualized images of minors — this directly implicates Google’s Play Store and could invite political/regulatory attention. Grok and X should be suspended from Apple, Google app stores, Democratic senators say
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares (SEC filing). The sale is small relative to his holdings but can be viewed negatively by some market participants. Sundar Pichai stock sale filing
• Negative Sentiment: Talent poaching: Nvidia hired a senior Google marketing executive as CMO — a signal that top talent is mobile amid fierce AI competition, which could concern investors about retention. Nvidia Hires Google Veteran as Its First Chief Marketing Officer

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.