Ceredex Value Advisors LLC Purchases New Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Ceredex Value Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 268,204 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $65,321,000. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.5% of Ceredex Value Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Horrell Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 100.0% during the 2nd 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 period. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 60.9% during the 2nd quarter. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Technical/flow support: MarketBeat says GOOGL has confirmed a major support zone near ~$300 after a 12% pullback, with strong institutional inflows and analyst upgrades that make the recent dip look like a potential long-term entry. GOOGL Pullback Confirms Support, Setting Up a Potential New Entry
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial traction: Reuters/InsiderMonkey reports CVS Health will roll out an AI-enabled customer platform built on Google Cloud — a tangible enterprise win that should boost cloud consumption and revenue visibility. CVS Health To Roll Out AI-enabled Platform With Google Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic/partner signal: CNBC reports Mandiant founder Kevin Mandia raised $190M for a new AI-cybersecurity startup (Armadin), with some funding coming from the company that sold him to Google — a sign of continued ecosystem investment and Google’s ongoing ties to security/AI startups. Kevin Mandia raised $190 million for Armadin
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation/coverage context: Market and media pieces (Zacks/Fool) are comparing Alphabet with peers (e.g., Nvidia) and reiterating Alphabet’s diversified revenue mix and long-term AI edge — useful framing but not new catalysts by itself. Nvidia vs. Alphabet: Which Stock Will Make You Richer?
• Negative Sentiment: Supply?chain/cost risk: TipRanks flags that Nvidia’s high?bandwidth memory buying spree has created global shortages that could raise costs or constrain Google’s AI hardware spend, a potential margin/headline risk for AI infrastructure. Nvidia’s Memory Shortage Could Cause Google Billions
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive pressure: MarketBeat coverage of Microsoft’s aggressive dual?model and Anthropic/OpenAI positioning underscores intensifying cloud/AI competition — a reminder Azure is a strong adversary for Google Cloud share gains. Microsoft Positioned to Win AI Race With Dual-Model Strategy
• Negative Sentiment: Governance/headline drag: Recent reports detail approval of a potential $692M CEO pay package tied to Waymo and insider sales by Alphabet’s CEO (~$9.86M sold) — items that can sap sentiment and were linked to small near?term stock weakness. Alphabet offers CEO pay deal worth up to $692M Alphabet CEO Sells Stock
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk: Yahoo/Reuters coverage of Indonesia’s plan to ban high?risk digital platforms for children under 16 could create regional regulatory pressure on core ad or platform features if similar rules spread. Indonesia Plans to Ban High-Risk Digital Platforms for Children

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.73, for a total transaction of $184,038.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 20,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,325,999.52. This represents a 2.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total transaction of $9,859,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,674,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $508,028,012.80. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 2,112,493 shares of company stock valued at $118,605,094 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.6%

Alphabet stock opened at $306.01 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $350.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.70 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $320.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $288.17. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.15 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial set a $350.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $360.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, January 5th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $343.90.

Alphabet 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.