MCF Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

MCF Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 23.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,020 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,052 shares during the period. MCF Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,110,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $454,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 33.4% in the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 75,680 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,470,000 after acquiring an additional 18,968 shares in the last quarter. Hurlow Wealth Management Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth approximately $250,000. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the third quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 59,170 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,384,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan raised its stake in Alphabet by 123.6% in the 3rd quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan now owns 251,437 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $61,363,000 after purchasing an additional 138,976 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Trading Up 4.0%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $314.98 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $320.32 and a 200 day moving average of $279.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.14, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.09. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on GOOGL. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp set a $370.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. CICC Research boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. President Capital increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $323.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, Moffett Nathanson raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $365.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total value of $35,060,852.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total value of $9,877,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,818,524 shares in the company, valued at approximately $856,605,814.08. The trade was a 1.14% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock valued at $119,145,289. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic cloud partnerships expanding addressable market — Google announced a deal with Sea Ltd to build AI tools for e‑commerce and gaming, which supports Google Cloud revenue growth in Southeast Asia and demonstrates enterprise demand for its AI stack. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum — Google is rolling Gemini‑powered, music‑focused generative‑AI features (also showing up at competitors), indicating faster consumer AI adoption that could boost engagement and future monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional support & analyst upgrades — recent 13F activity and analyst price‑target increases (and MarketBeat coverage) signal long‑term investor conviction that can underpin the stock. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: AI infrastructure arms race — NVIDIA–Meta mega‑deal and hyperscaler capex plans validate AI demand but raise competitive and capital‑intensity questions for Google; this is demand‑positive but increases the investment bar. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet exploring chip/partner strategies — WSJ reports Google is weighing ways to use its balance sheet to better compete with chip suppliers, a strategic move that could reduce long‑run costs or distract management depending on execution. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — recent disclosed sales by CEO Sundar Pichai and senior exec John Kent Walker (multi‑million dollar sales) can sap near‑term sentiment even if routine for compensation/liquidity reasons. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Security/legal risk — indictment of three engineers accused of stealing Google trade secrets and sending data to Iran raises potential IP, litigation and reputational risks that investors will watch. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: AI rotation/profit‑taking — some prominent managers have trimmed AI positions in recent 13F filings, which contributes to episodic pressure on hyperscaler multiples. Read More.

Alphabet Company 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.