Bourne Lent Asset Management Inc. Trims Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Bourne Lent Asset Management Inc. lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 98,950 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 7,603 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 10.3% of Bourne Lent Asset Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Bourne Lent Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $30,972,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $53,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $53,000. Corsicana & Co. bought a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $54,000. Finally, Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 37.9% in the second quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive: several outlets note continued Buy/Outperform ratings on Alphabet driven by cloud monetization and AI opportunity — Wells Fargo kept an overweight stance (while trimming targets), signaling upside remains despite lower PTs. Ahead of Meta, Alphabet earnings, Wells Fargo keeps overweight, cuts PTs
• Positive Sentiment: Market/analyst commentary highlights Alphabet’s AI upside — an Outperform rating specifically cites AI growth potential as a driver for long‑term revenue and cloud monetization. Alphabet (GOOGL) Rated Outperform on AI Growth Potential
• Positive Sentiment: Product & tech advances: coverage of Google’s Gemma 4 and reporting on the TurboQuant breakthrough reinforce Alphabet’s lead in model and efficiency advances — positive for future monetization and competitive moat. Google’s Gemma 4 brings AI superpowers to your device Google’s TurboQuant Breakthrough Just Rewrote the AI Playbook
• Neutral Sentiment: Talent movement: Broadcom named Alphabet executive Amie Thuener as its next CFO — a notable departure but not an earnings item; monitor succession and any operational impact. Broadcom taps Alphabet executive Amie Thuener as next CFO
• Negative Sentiment: Near‑term cash‑flow risk: Semianalysis’ CEO warned AI capex could push Google’s free cash flow toward zero next year, feeding investor worries about heavy, multi‑year spending before full monetization. Semianalysis CEO: Google’s free cash flow will hit zero next year from AI capex
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/reputational pressure: EU hospitality groups and child‑development experts are urging scrutiny of Google’s search rankings and AI video recommendations, raising potential regulatory and compliance risks in Europe and for YouTube. EU hospitality groups raise concerns over Google search rankings Experts urged Google to prohibit AI Videos targeting young YouTube users
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: An SEC filing shows a senior executive sold ~9k shares in late March — a modest but visible reduction in insider ownership that can prompt short‑term concern. John Kent Walker insider sale disclosure

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 1.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total value of $35,060,852.00. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,101,227 shares of company stock valued at $114,969,050. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Daiwa Securities Group upped their target price on Alphabet from $333.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 price target (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $350.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $367.33.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $295.77 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $309.93 and its 200-day moving average is $295.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.58 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The business 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%. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

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.