Advisors Capital Management LLC Reduces Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Advisors Capital Management LLC cut its Alphabet stake by 8.8% in Q4, selling 45,721 shares and now holding 472,149 shares worth about $148.16 million (1.7% of its portfolio, its 5th largest position).
• Alphabet beat Q1 expectations, reporting $5.11 EPS vs. $2.68 consensus and $109.9B revenue (up 21.8% YoY), and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 ($0.88 annualized, ~0.2% yield).
• Bullish catalysts include a reported ~$200 billion multi‑year Anthropic commitment to Google Cloud and rising analyst price targets (consensus "Buy", avg target ≈ $362.73), supporting positive investor sentiment.

Advisors Capital Management LLC reduced its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 8.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 472,149 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 45,721 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 1.7% of Advisors Capital Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Advisors Capital Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $148,161,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Imprint Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Towne Trust Company N.A grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 34.0% during the 4th quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 134 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lynch Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $61,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $384.34 on Wednesday. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $313.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $309.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92. The firm has a market cap of $4.65 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.25. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $149.49 and a one year high of $388.96.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $2.43. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.96 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.Alphabet's quarterly revenue was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.81 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 13.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 6.41%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $348.00 price objective (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Needham & Company LLC set a $400.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $395.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Pivotal Research reissued a "buy" rating and set a $470.00 price objective (up from $420.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $362.73.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Reported huge Anthropic commitment to Google Cloud — The Information/Reuters reported Anthropic has agreed to spend roughly $200 billion with Google Cloud over multiple years, a deal that would materially boost cloud bookings and long‑term revenue visibility. Anthropic commits $200B to Google Cloud (Reuters)
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts turning more bullish and lifting price targets — Multiple firms have raised targets (including a street‑high $515 note), citing AI upside, custom models and accelerating cloud monetization, supporting higher valuation multiples. Analyst $515 target (TipRanks)
• Positive Sentiment: Record highs and strong Q1 fundamentals — Investors are pricing in Q1 beats (EPS and revenue), 60%+ cloud growth and a ballooning cloud backlog that underpins multi‑year revenue conversion. That momentum is driving buying interest. Alphabet hits record highs (Yahoo)
• Positive Sentiment: Product / infrastructure moves could expand addressable market — Google moving to sell TPUs directly and scale AI compute options could accelerate revenue capture and challenge competitors in AI infrastructure. Google to sell TPUs directly (247WallSt)
• Neutral Sentiment: U.S. government access and stress‑testing of AI models — The administration expanded programs to let government scientists and agencies review unreleased models (including DeepMind) to assess risks; this is a mix of oversight and validation. US stress tests of AI models (Reuters)
• Neutral Sentiment: Capital markets: large euro bond sale with strong demand — Alphabet tapped the euro market with a multi‑tranche offering to fund AI infrastructure; strong order books reduce financing risk but also highlight heavy near‑term CapEx plans. Euro bond offering (Reuters)
• Negative Sentiment: Employee unrest and DoD/defense work — DeepMind staff have pushed for union recognition and protested military contracts; classified DoD engagements raise reputational and retention risks that could affect operations. DeepMind union vote over military deals (Business Insider)
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/privacy push in EU — A top Google scientist warned that EU proposals to share search data with rivals could expose user data, signaling potential regulatory headwinds and business model risk if rules tighten. EU data sharing concerns (Reuters)

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total value of $9,877,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,818,524 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $856,605,814.08. The trade was a 1.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.65, for a total value of $348,232.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,187,638.65. This represents a 22.67% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 158,553 shares of company stock worth $47,951,856 in the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc NASDAQ: GOOG is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as "Other Bets." Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company's history.

Alphabet's core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company's ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding GOOG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.