Hilltop Holdings Inc. Sells 38,149 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Hilltop Holdings Inc. reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 41.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 54,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 38,149 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.4% of Hilltop Holdings Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Hilltop Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,694,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $30,534,239,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 855.3% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 14,525,280 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,546,413,000 after acquiring an additional 13,004,828 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after acquiring an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,910,542,000 after acquiring an additional 11,605,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diamant Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 28,950.0% in the 1st quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,291,926 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,671,986,000 after acquiring an additional 9,259,940 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total value of $387,061.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 1,481 shares in the company, valued at $545,941.03. This represents a 41.49% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total value of $3,142,911.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 75,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,298,044.10. This trade represents a 10.68% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 600,547 shares of company stock valued at $16,255,540. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong earnings and analyst support: Alphabet’s latest results significantly exceeded consensus expectations, reinforcing confidence in accelerating revenue and profit growth. Multiple reports describe the stock as undervalued or a favorable growth investment, while analysts maintain a consensus “Buy” rating. Alphabet Stock is Climbing: What’s Going On Today?
• Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure positioning: Commentary argues Alphabet is better equipped than many peers to absorb the cost of Nvidia chips while benefiting from expanding AI demand. Investors also see Google Search, cloud services, and AI infrastructure as complementary growth engines. Berkshire Hathaway’s reported investment in Alphabet adds to the bullish narrative. The Nvidia Tax: Alphabet Mitigates It Better
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo validation: An analysis reported that Alphabet’s Waymo robotaxis crash substantially less often than human-driven vehicles. While Waymo is not yet a major earnings contributor, the finding supports Alphabet’s long-term autonomous-driving and technology portfolio. Waymo robotaxis found to crash 68% less often
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial AI momentum: Google’s partnership with Paris Saint-Germain and participation in upcoming White House AI-regulation discussions highlight expanding enterprise and institutional interest in its AI capabilities. Paris Saint-Germain partners with Google on AI
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft’s lead in cloud market share remains a competitive concern, although Alphabet’s Google Cloud continues to grow and benefits from the same AI spending cycle. Microsoft Races Ahead of Google in the Cloud
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are weighing whether heavy AI capital expenditures will temporarily pressure margins or create durable long-term returns.
• Negative Sentiment: A Google Earth tool reportedly made it possible to create AI-generated fake satellite imagery, raising questions about safeguards, misinformation, and potential regulatory scrutiny. For a Day, Google Made It Easy to Spoof Satellite Imagery

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $373.51 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $190.12 and a 52 week high of $408.61. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $357.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $339.62. The company has a quick ratio of 2.64, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $4.57 trillion, a P/E ratio of 18.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%. On average, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.42%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on GOOGL shares. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $425.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Pivotal Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $475.00 target price (up from $470.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $445.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $425.00 price target (up from $405.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $419.86.

Alphabet 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.