SlateStone Wealth LLC Has $25.34 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

SlateStone Wealth LLC decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 104,230 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 4,104 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 2.2% of SlateStone Wealth LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $25,338,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Moment Partners LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 9.3% in the second quarter. Moment Partners LLC now owns 5,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,039,000 after acquiring an additional 504 shares in the last quarter. Welch Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 64,262 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,325,000 after purchasing an additional 2,467 shares during the last quarter. Brooktree Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $352,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,277,000 after purchasing an additional 7,180 shares during the period. Finally, Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,028 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,415,000 after buying an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 4.0%

GOOGL stock opened at $314.98 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a fifty day moving average of $320.32 and a 200-day moving average of $278.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $349.00.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.77%.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic cloud partnerships expanding addressable market — Google announced a deal with Sea Ltd to build AI tools for e‑commerce and gaming, which supports Google Cloud revenue growth in Southeast Asia and demonstrates enterprise demand for its AI stack. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum — Google is rolling Gemini‑powered, music‑focused generative‑AI features (also showing up at competitors), indicating faster consumer AI adoption that could boost engagement and future monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional support & analyst upgrades — recent 13F activity and analyst price‑target increases (and MarketBeat coverage) signal long‑term investor conviction that can underpin the stock. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: AI infrastructure arms race — NVIDIA–Meta mega‑deal and hyperscaler capex plans validate AI demand but raise competitive and capital‑intensity questions for Google; this is demand‑positive but increases the investment bar. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet exploring chip/partner strategies — WSJ reports Google is weighing ways to use its balance sheet to better compete with chip suppliers, a strategic move that could reduce long‑run costs or distract management depending on execution. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — recent disclosed sales by CEO Sundar Pichai and senior exec John Kent Walker (multi‑million dollar sales) can sap near‑term sentiment even if routine for compensation/liquidity reasons. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Security/legal risk — indictment of three engineers accused of stealing Google trade secrets and sending data to Iran raises potential IP, litigation and reputational risks that investors will watch. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: AI rotation/profit‑taking — some prominent managers have trimmed AI positions in recent 13F filings, which contributes to episodic pressure on hyperscaler multiples. Read More.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total transaction of $14,341,182.30. Following the transaction, the insider owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The stock was 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock worth $119,145,289. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. BNP Paribas Exane assumed coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Monday, November 24th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 price objective for the company. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 price target (up previously from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $375.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, CICC Research lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $365.86.

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.