Thompson Investment Management Inc. Sells 17,569 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Thompson Investment Management Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 10.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 146,669 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 17,569 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 5.8% of Thompson Investment Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Thompson Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $45,907,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lifelong Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Lifelong Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,728 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $541,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 11,799 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,693,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Delta Asset Management LLC TN lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% during the third quarter. Delta Asset Management LLC TN now owns 6,153 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,496,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Second Line Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% during the third quarter. Second Line Capital LLC now owns 4,417 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,074,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wolff Wiese Magana LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 7,615 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,384,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Alphabet News

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

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $295.77 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $309.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $296.59. 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 stock has a market capitalization 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 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $349.00.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. China Renaissance raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Argus increased their price objective on Alphabet from $365.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. New Street Research boosted their target price on Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Alphabet from $279.00 to $357.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Moffett Nathanson raised their price target on Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $367.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 directly owned 4,631 shares of the company’s stock, 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 SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $35,060,852.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,101,844 shares of company stock valued at $115,147,751 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.