SouthState Bank Corp Lowers Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

SouthState Bank Corp lessened its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 64,252 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 4,804 shares during the quarter. SouthState Bank Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,620,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth about $31,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $53,000. Corsicana & Co. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $54,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 37.9% during the 2nd quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, S&T Bank PA boosted its position in Alphabet by 40.2% in the 2nd quarter. S&T Bank PA now owns 345 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,798,832.60. This represents a 23.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.30, for a total transaction of $10,637,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,211,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $723,945,705.60. This trade represents a 1.45% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,079,982 shares of company stock worth $109,267,889. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $365.86.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google deepens commercial AI footprint with a new partnership to build AI tools with Sea Ltd for e‑commerce and gaming — this expands Google Cloud’s addressable market in SEA and signals more enterprise demand for Google’s AI stack. Google, Shopee-owner Sea to develop AI tools
• Positive Sentiment: Product innovation: Google Gemini and Music-focused generative-AI features (also adopted by Apple) show AI features moving into mainstream consumer apps — supports user engagement and future monetization opportunities. Google Gemini, Apple add music-focused generative AI features
• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud demand theme: coverage highlighting an “inference tsunami” (growing model deployment needs) and Google partner upgrades (Select-tier partners) point toward higher cloud/inference spend that could benefit Google Cloud revenue. An Inference Tsunami May Be Coming for Google Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional backing: recent 13F activity shows heavyweight investors (e.g., David Tepper boosting positions; Berkshire still holding GOOGL) — institutional support can stabilize shares over time. David Tepper goes big on Alphabet
• Neutral Sentiment: NVIDIA–Meta mega‑deal and huge AI capex across hyperscalers underline intense competition for chips and talent — this validates AI demand but raises the bar for infrastructure investments (mixed for Alphabet). NVIDIA and Meta deepen their AI alliance
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: Alphabet exec John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares (~$14.3M) recently — a large disclosed sale that can weigh on sentiment even if not unusual for insiders. SEC filing – insider sale
• Negative Sentiment: Security/legal risk: three Silicon Valley engineers were indicted for allegedly stealing Google trade secrets and sending data to Iran — reputational, intellectual‑property and potential litigation or security-cost implications. Three engineers charged stealing Google trade secrets
• Negative Sentiment: Investor rotation/AI sentiment: notable managers (e.g., Stanley Druckenmiller) sold several high-profile AI names in 13F filings — contributes to broader profit‑taking pressure on AI/hyperscaler stocks. Druckenmiller dumped several AI stocks

Alphabet Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $302.85 on Friday. 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 fifty day simple moving average of $320.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $277.46. The stock has a market cap of $3.66 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.02, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.09. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $349.00.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 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.