Ceredex Value Advisors LLC Has $36.84 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Ceredex Value Advisors LLC cut its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 32.8% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 104,261 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 50,793 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.0% of Ceredex Value Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $36,839,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management now owns 275,943 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $86,596,000 after purchasing an additional 2,850 shares during the period. Heck Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 298.2% during the second quarter. Heck Capital Advisors LLC now owns 22,229 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,854,000 after purchasing an additional 16,647 shares during the period. Violich Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Violich Capital Management Inc. now owns 340,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $106,936,000 after buying an additional 3,378 shares in the last quarter. Montchanin Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $7,075,000. Finally, Sax Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 13.3% in the second quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 30,489 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,773,000 after buying an additional 3,575 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google employees are reportedly testing Gemini 3.8 Flash, suggesting a new model could launch soon and strengthen Alphabet’s competitive position in generative AI. The company also hired AI researcher Barret Zoph as a Google DeepMind research vice president. Google employees are already testing the next Gemini Flash AI model
• Positive Sentiment: Wolfe Research named Alphabet a top 2027 stock pick and set a $460 target, citing accelerating Google Cloud growth and expanding AI monetization opportunities. Analysts also highlighted strong advertising performance, including reported 14.4% second-quarter ad-revenue growth. Alphabet is a top 2027 stock pick
• Positive Sentiment: Google expanded AI Mode with tools to track flight prices and help users book hotels, potentially increasing commercial activity and supporting future search-related revenue. Google’s AI Mode can now track flight prices, help book hotels, and more
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet joined more than 100 technology companies in calling for coordinated defenses against rogue-AI cyber threats. The move may support responsible-AI efforts but also underscores growing scrutiny of the sector. Companies call for action to defend against rogue AI
• Negative Sentiment: The FTC is reportedly in the final stages of investigating whether YouTube violated consumer-protection laws by suspending users’ accounts and may prepare a lawsuit. Potential penalties, compliance costs and restrictions on YouTube’s policies are weighing on sentiment. US FTC probes YouTube over social media policies
• Negative Sentiment: Google agreed to pay approximately $353 million to settle a U.K. class-action lawsuit brought by app developers over fees, creating a direct financial charge and potentially raising concerns about additional platform-related claims. Google agrees to settle UK app developers’ lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: Law firms including Pomerantz and Frank R. Cruz announced investigations into possible securities-law violations. These notices are typically investor-solicitation announcements rather than new findings, but they add to the negative legal-news flow. Pomerantz investor alert

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. KeyCorp set a $445.00 price target on Alphabet in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Freedom Capital raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Roth Capital upped their target price on Alphabet from $435.00 to $440.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price target on Alphabet from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $415.55.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total value of $149,606.80. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,125,015.20. This trade represents a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total value of $3,142,911.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 75,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. This represents a 10.68% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 451,843 shares of company stock valued at $12,343,852 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $337.71 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $206.96 and a 1 year high of $404.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.64. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $348.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $339.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.87 by $6.24. The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $116.53 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 24.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.31 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.42%.

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.