Meridian Wealth Management LLC Has $25.04 Million Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Meridian Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 102,814 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,939 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 1.0% of Meridian Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Meridian Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $25,040,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $73,927,821,000 after acquiring an additional 5,182,111 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $33,511,477,000 after acquiring an additional 2,428,266 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 107,760,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,022,926,000 after purchasing an additional 441,177 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% during the second quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 35,357,943 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,272,146,000 after purchasing an additional 2,117,990 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 31,503,035 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,588,323,000 after purchasing an additional 695,736 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 8,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,798,832.60. This trade represents a 23.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the business’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 value of $5,614,173.81. Following the sale, the insider owned 42,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,531,453.08. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 2,070,464 shares of company stock worth $106,153,077 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $360.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Pivotal Research restated a “buy” rating and set a $420.00 price objective (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $345.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $343.47.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat: Alphabet reported higher‑than‑expected revenue and EPS, Google Cloud grew ~48% YoY and backlog jumped to roughly $240B — proof of strong AI demand underpinning long‑term growth. Alphabet Crushes Earnings — MarketBeat
• Positive Sentiment: Product and ecosystem wins: Gemini adoption and enterprise traction (large token/API usage) are driving monetization across Search, YouTube and Cloud; Waymo is also using Google’s Genie‑3 model for virtual training — signals that AI investments are translating into product advantage. Waymo Taps Google’s Genie 3 — TipRanks
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst view is broadly positive but mixed on valuation: several price‑target raises and buy/overweight ratings highlight conviction in AI/cloud upside, while some firms flag a hold rating because of aggressive capex and near‑term margin pressure. New Analyst Forecast $395 — QuiverQuant
• Neutral Sentiment: Corporate moves: Alphabet announced a small quarterly dividend and continues to convert AI investments into subscriptions and ad monetization — long‑term positives, but limited near‑term impact on share price.
• Negative Sentiment: CapEx shock: management guided roughly $175–185B in 2026 CapEx (nearly double 2025), which spooked investors because it pushes spending and capital intensity into the spotlight and raises near‑term return uncertainty. That guidance is the primary reason shares fell today. Alphabet Resets the Bar for AI Spending — CNBC
• Negative Sentiment: Insider & fund selling: recent insider sales and public fund trimming (and some institutional position reductions) add selling pressure and amplify short‑term downside risk. Stock Down on Insider Selling — AmericanBankingNews
• Negative Sentiment: Policy & reputational risks: a proposed bill to regulate data‑center interconnection/charges and internal employee protests over government cloud contracts could raise operating costs or create reputational/headwind risks for data‑center expansion. Power for the People Act S.3682 — QuiverQuant Google Workers Demand End to Cloud Services — NYTimes

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $323.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.90 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 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 50 day moving average price is $322.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $271.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 2.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.15 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business 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 is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

About Alphabet

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.