Spire Wealth Management Lowers Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Spire Wealth Management trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 183,970 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 15,481 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.9% of Spire Wealth Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Spire Wealth Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $57,583,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth about $21,944,208,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth about $4,338,397,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 17,667.7% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,686,640,000 after acquiring an additional 15,159,273 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after acquiring an additional 11,605,785 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 50,732,476 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,333,076,000 after acquiring an additional 6,874,381 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive — Wells Fargo kept an overweight rating (while trimming targets), and other outlets highlight Buy/Outperform views that point to meaningful upside from cloud/AI monetization. Wells Fargo Raised the PT on Alphabet Inc (GOOGL), Maintains a Buy Rating
• Positive Sentiment: Product/efficiency wins: Google’s Gemma 4 and the TurboQuant algorithm reduce model memory needs and improve on‑device/model efficiency — strengthens competitive moat and could lower operating costs for AI services. Google’s Gemma 4 brings AI superpowers to your device Google’s TurboQuant Breakthrough Just Rewrote the AI Playbook
• Positive Sentiment: Fundamental/earnings confidence: coverage from Zacks and others flags Alphabet’s earnings growth and price strength as reasons to watch the stock heading into earnings season. Earnings Growth & Price Strength Make Alphabet (GOOGL) a Stock to Watch
• Neutral Sentiment: Talent movement: Broadcom named Alphabet executive Amie Thuener as its next CFO — notable departure to monitor but not an immediate earnings event. Broadcom taps Alphabet executive Amie Thuener as next CFO
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory probe in Turkey: the Turkish Competition Board opened an investigation into Google’s advertising and billing practices — potential fines, business restrictions or remediation costs could hit ad revenue/operations in the region. Turkey launches investigation into Google over advertising, billing practices
• Negative Sentiment: Legal risk rises as Section 230 liability narrows: recent court losses for platforms (including YouTube/Google units) increase the probability of costly litigation and moderation compliance burdens. Meta, Google under attack as court cases bypass 30-year-old legal shield
• Negative Sentiment: Near‑term cash‑flow and capex concern: industry commentary warns that hyperscaler AI capex could push Google’s free cash flow toward zero next year — elevates execution and financing risk until monetization of AI investments scales. Semianalysis CEO: Google’s free cash flow will hit zero next year from AI capex
• Negative Sentiment: Operational/ESG risk from data‑center power strategy: reporting that hyperscalers (including Google) are building large natural‑gas plants to power AI centers raises reputational, regulatory and long‑term transition risks. AI companies are building huge natural gas plants to power data centers. What could go wrong?
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: an SEC filing shows a senior exec sold ~9k shares in late March — modest in dollar terms but can be read negatively by short‑term traders. Insider Selling: Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Insider Sells 8,993 Shares of Stock

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOGL. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up from $365.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $385.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Daiwa Securities Group boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $333.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Alphabet from $370.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $367.33.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $295.77 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $309.29 and its 200 day moving average is $296.59. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The company has a market cap of $3.58 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.36, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.12. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $349.00.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were paid 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 is 7.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, 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 stock was sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total value of $35,060,852.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total value of $318,580.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,405,091.71. The trade was a 18.48% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 2,101,844 shares of company stock valued at $115,147,751 in the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.