Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Acquired by ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC

ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 321.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,146 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,215 shares during the quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,980,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Opes Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 4.1% during the third quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,194 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,235,000 after purchasing an additional 366 shares in the last quarter. Manhattan West Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Manhattan West Asset Management LLC now owns 89,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $21,715,000 after buying an additional 555 shares in the last quarter. LifeGoal Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. LifeGoal Investments LLC now owns 1,688 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $410,000 after buying an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Capital Square LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Square LLC now owns 4,513 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,097,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $416,217,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: DeepMind hires Bridgewater’s chief scientist Jasjeet Sekhon as chief strategy officer — a notable AI talent win that reinforces Alphabet’s product roadmap and competitive positioning in AI. Reuters: Sekhon to join DeepMind
• Positive Sentiment: Google’s Wiz acquisition expands Google Cloud’s security portfolio, strengthening the Cloud growth narrative that underpins future revenue diversification. Zacks: GOOGL’s Wiz buyout
• Positive Sentiment: Regulatory concession: Google will let sites opt out of generative AI search features in the UK — reduces near‑term regulatory risk to search revenue. Reuters: Google to allow AI opt‑out
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider selling: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares and director John Hennessy sold a smaller stake — notable but small relative to total insider holdings; monitor for pattern. InsiderTrades: Pichai sale
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest data in feeds appears anomalous/zero and does not indicate a meaningful short build or squeeze at present.
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/valuation headwinds: analysts flag $410B+ hyperscaler AI capex and uncertainty over returns, a theme that keeps pressure on tech multiples (including Alphabet). Fool: Reason tech stocks struggle
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive/market pressure: analyst pieces note rising competition in cloud analytics (Snowflake) and product battles that could temper near‑term share gains despite execution. Zacks: Snowflake vs Alphabet

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Arete Research boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Raymond James Financial upgraded Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $360.00 target price (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Loop Capital raised their price target on Alphabet from $320.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $367.18.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.2%

GOOGL opened at $307.13 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $318.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $291.96. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The company has a market cap of $3.72 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.77%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.21, for a total value of $10,439,325.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,244,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $720,914,730.12. The trade was a 1.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $35,060,852.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,110,165 shares of company stock valued at $118,134,117. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

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.