Connors Investor Services Inc. Reduces Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Connors Investor Services Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 31.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 69,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 32,422 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 1.4% of Connors Investor Services Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Connors Investor Services Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $16,829,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,826,000 after buying an additional 506 shares during the period. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY boosted its stake in Alphabet by 17.6% during the second quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $685,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 11.2% during the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $85,557,000 after acquiring an additional 48,805 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank increased its position in Alphabet by 6.9% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,495,000 after acquiring an additional 3,120 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 target price (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 1st. Wedbush upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $354.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 target price (up from $325.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $367.18.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $307.13 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $318.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $291.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $349.00. The firm has a market cap of $3.72 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion during 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, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total transaction of $318,580.50. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,631 shares in the company, valued at $1,405,091.71. This represents a 18.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total transaction of $14,341,182.30. Following the transaction, the insider owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 2,110,165 shares of company stock valued at $118,134,117 over the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Key Alphabet News

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

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.