Morling Financial Advisors LLC Increases Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Morling Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 59.2% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,303 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,972 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 0.5% of Morling Financial Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Morling Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,525,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $165,567,398,000 after acquiring an additional 12,531,695 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,625,595,000 after purchasing an additional 2,666,676 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $30,534,239,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Alphabet by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 69,108,183 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $21,630,861,000 after purchasing an additional 3,218,852 shares in 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: Wall Street analysts continue to support Alphabet’s AI strategy, with several firms maintaining bullish ratings despite trimming price targets to reflect heavier capital expenditures. Investors appear to view the pullback as a buying opportunity. GOOG stock rebounds as Wall Street continues to back AI strategy despite PT cuts
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s second-quarter performance exceeded expectations, including $119.8 billion in revenue and $9.11 in adjusted earnings per share versus consensus of $117.07 billion and $2.89, respectively. Search demand and Google Cloud growth remain key areas of momentum.
• Positive Sentiment: Reports suggest Alphabet’s biggest AI concern—whether its investments can generate meaningful demand and returns—may be easing. Cloud growth, enterprise adoption and early AI monetization support the case for continued investment. Forget AI Capex Concerns – Buy Alphabet After Excellent Q2 Earnings
• Positive Sentiment: YouTube reached a multiyear agreement to include NBCUniversal’s Peacock content in YouTube Premium subscriptions, potentially strengthening the platform’s entertainment offering and subscriber value beginning in 2027. NBCUniversal and YouTube ink deal to embed Peacock
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and investors remain divided over Alphabet’s raised 2026 capital-spending forecast of approximately $195 billion to $205 billion. The spending should support AI data centers, Cloud capacity and future growth, but returns will depend on sustained demand.
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet reportedly spent about $44.9 billion on AI-related investment during the quarter, producing negative free cash flow for the first time as a public company. The deterioration has intensified concerns about spending discipline and the risk that AI returns take longer than expected. Google spent $490 million a day on AI
• Negative Sentiment: Broader technology stocks are not being rewarded for strong earnings, suggesting investors are scrutinizing valuations, capital intensity and future cash flow more closely. This limits the potential upside from Alphabet’s earnings beat.
• Negative Sentiment: A reported privacy issue involving publicly searchable Claude conversations and user-created files on Google search could create reputational or regulatory concerns, although the incident primarily involves Anthropic’s sharing controls. Claude shared chats and Artifacts found on Google

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.72, for a total transaction of $153,432.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 27,348 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,345,358.56. This represents a 1.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 159,415 shares of company stock valued at $7,672,279. 11.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $370.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. HSBC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $420.00 target price (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $515.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $419.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $326.56 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $361.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $338.98. The firm has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 16.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.24. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $187.82 and a 12-month high of $408.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 17.59 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 4.42%.

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.