Modera Wealth Management LLC Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Modera Wealth Management LLC lessened its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.1% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 97,214 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,124 shares during the quarter. Modera Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $23,633,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Corsicana & Co. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $54,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth about $63,000. Finally, Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 89 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet beat Q4 estimates with $113.8B revenue, $2.82 EPS, huge Google Cloud growth (48% y/y) and milestone annual revenue above $400B — evidence that AI and ads are driving durable top‑line momentum. Alphabet Crushes Earnings Again, Reports 48% Cloud Revenue Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Gemini/product adoption and a surging cloud backlog (reported at ~$240B) support longer‑term revenue leverage from AI investments — a structural growth argument investors and many analysts are citing. Google goes from laggard to leader as it pulls ahead of OpenAI with stellar AI growth
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple brokers raised price targets and reiterated buy/outperform views after the quarter (e.g., Citigroup, JPMorgan, RBC, Needham, Mizuho), providing analyst support under the share price. Multiple analyst price target raises (Benzinga)
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short interest data shows no meaningful short position change (reads as negligible/quiet on short‑selling activity), so moves are likely driven by flows and sentiment rather than a short squeeze.
• Neutral Sentiment: ETF/sector flows and inclusion chatter (new Big Tech ETFs) can amplify moves in GOOGL but are not company‑specific catalysts. Big Tech Core: New Burney ETF Packs Apple, Nvidia, Google, Broadcom Punch
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet guided to $175–$185B of capex for 2026 (aimed at AI compute and cloud), a shockingly large jump that has investors fretting about near‑term free cash flow and returns on incremental AI spend — the dominant proximate cause of recent weakness. Alphabet resets the bar for AI infrastructure spending (CNBC)
• Negative Sentiment: Wider market narrative: fears about excessive AI capex are prompting a tech sell‑off (FactSet noted >$1T wiped from big‑tech), which weighs on Alphabet alongside company‑specific capex concerns. Big Tech sees over $1 trillion wiped from stocks as fears of AI bubble ignite sell-off
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling was reported after the quarter, adding near‑term pressure on sentiment. Alphabet Shares Down After Insider Selling
• Negative Sentiment: Employee protests over Google Cloud contracts with immigration agencies pose reputational/legal risk that can create headline volatility. Google Workers Demand End to Cloud Services for Immigration Agencies

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on GOOGL. Loop Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $260.00 to $320.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price target (up from $346.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Arete Research boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $300.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Moffett Nathanson upped their price objective on Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $357.46.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.5%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $322.86 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $321.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $270.73. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $349.00. The firm has a market cap of $3.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.77%.

Insider Activity

In other news, 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 transaction of $5,614,173.81. Following the sale, the insider owned 42,972 shares in the company, valued at $13,531,453.08. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total transaction of $800,786.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,383,884.14. This represents a 19.14% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,067,686 shares of company stock valued at $105,352,291. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.