Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc Sells 289,505 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 51.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 269,531 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 289,505 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.6% of Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $65,523,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. grew its position in Alphabet by 36.4% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Corsicana & Co. bought a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $54,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 37.9% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, S&T Bank PA lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 40.2% during the 2nd quarter. S&T Bank PA now owns 345 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. CICC Research raised their price target on Alphabet from $240.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Truist Financial set a $350.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. BNP Paribas Exane started coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, November 24th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $260.00 to $320.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-two have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $334.60.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $338.25 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $319.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $263.90. The stock has a market cap of $4.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.36, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $342.29.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total transaction of $867,569.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at $2,798,832.60. This trade represents a 23.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total transaction of $5,614,173.81. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 42,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,531,453.08. This trade represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 222,297 shares of company stock valued at $68,531,851. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades and bullish notes support near?term sentiment — Needham and RBC reiterated/issued buy ratings and recent coverage called for earnings upside into the next report, helping lift conviction in shares. Alphabet Earns Buy Rating from Needham RBC Reiterates Buy
• Positive Sentiment: Google and Amazon’s push into AI chips reduces reliance on Nvidia and signals growing in?house/cloud hardware capabilities — positive for Google Cloud margins and capex leverage. Amazon and Google Eat Into Nvidia’s A.I. Chip Supremacy
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum: Chrome adds AI image generation and a side?panel assistant, and Alphabet is pushing AI into Search — supports ad/search revenue upside and user engagement. Google adds AI image generation to Chrome Zacks: AI Push to Boost Search Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Security actions: Google disrupted a large residential proxy network (IPIDEA) tied to abuse, which reduces fraud risk and is a reputational win for its platforms. That supports enterprise trust and regulatory relations. Google disrupts large residential proxy network Google Disrupts Network That Allowed Bad Actors
• Neutral Sentiment: Competitive landscape pieces compare CoreWeave and Alphabet for AI infrastructure — highlights both opportunity and execution risk as GOOGL competes on hardware, software and cloud pricing. CRVW vs. GOOGL: Which Stock Wins the AI Infrastructure Race?
• Neutral Sentiment: Short interest data in the feed is noisy/zeroed and not informative — no clear short?squeeze signal from the provided entry. (No link — data summary.)
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo safety incident: a Waymo driverless vehicle struck a child near a Santa Monica elementary school; NHTSA has opened an investigation. This raises regulatory and liability risk for the autonomous driving unit and could pressure sentiment around Waymo?related capex and commercialization timelines. Waymo Robotaxi Hits Child, Prompting NHTSA Investigation CNBC: A Waymo hit a child near an elementary school
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal pressure: the U.K. CMA is proposing rules to let publishers opt out of AI overviews and new conduct requirements; Alphabet also agreed to a ~$135M U.S. settlement over cellular data handling — potential modest earnings/headline risk and ongoing compliance costs. U.K. Competition Watchdog Plans New Rules Google to Pay $135 Million to Settle Lawsuit

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.