Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stake Trimmed by Cresta Advisors Ltd.

Key Points

• Cresta Advisors reduced its Alphabet stake by 13.8% in the third quarter, selling 1,450 shares and retaining 9,023 shares valued at approximately $3.1 million. Institutional investors collectively own about 40.03% of Alphabet.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive, with Alphabet holding a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $425.74, despite some firms downgrading the stock to “Hold.”
• Alphabet’s AI expansion—including the Gemini 4 Argon launch and growing data-center investment—supports its long-term growth outlook, but heavy capital spending, cash-flow pressure and ongoing securities litigation remain key risks.

Cresta Advisors Ltd. cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 13.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,023 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,450 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.5% of Cresta Advisors Ltd.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Cresta Advisors Ltd.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,105,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Core Capital Management & Research inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $41,000. Premier Financial Group purchased a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, Graney & King LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 38.5% in the second quarter. Graney & King LLC now owns 180 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $64,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google launched Gemini 4 Argon, a new frontier AI model for developers, businesses and paid users. The model includes expanded coding and knowledge-work capabilities, potentially strengthening Alphabet’s competitive position and supporting future Cloud and subscription revenue. Google launches flagship AI model Gemini 4 Argon for developers and businesses
• Positive Sentiment: UBS raised its Alphabet price target, while BNP Paribas reportedly lifted its target to $450 based partly on the outlook for Alphabet’s in-house Tensor Processing Units. Analysts see potential for the chip business to become a significant revenue opportunity. Alphabet target bumped to $450 at BNP Paribas on TPU outlook
• Positive Sentiment: American Electric Power plans to invest approximately $4 billion in Wyoming fuel-cell generation to serve Google’s growing electricity demand. The project supports Alphabet’s expanding data-center and AI infrastructure capacity, although it also highlights the significant cost of scaling AI. American Electric Power to invest $4 billion fuel-cell project to power Google
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s Google DeepMind and Google Cloud will give European researchers access to frontier AI models, potentially improving research adoption and ecosystem influence. Meanwhile, the European Commission said it remains in dialogue with Google, leaving regulatory implications unclear.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms publicized a securities class action covering investors who purchased Alphabet shares between May 19 and July 16, 2026. The lawsuit alleges Alphabet misrepresented delays and training problems involving the Gemini 3.5 Pro launch after a subsequent stock decline. The repeated notices increase headline, litigation and reputational risk, although they do not represent new findings of liability. Alphabet AI issues and subsequent stock drop trigger securities-fraud class action
• Negative Sentiment: Investor commentary also flagged heavy AI capital spending and the gap between operating cash flow and free cash flow, reinforcing concerns that data-center expansion could pressure near-term cash generation despite strong reported earnings.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $395.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, September 28th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Wall Street Zen cut Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Zacks Research cut Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $425.74.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $347.64 on Thursday. 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 Inc. has a twelve month low of $244.15 and a twelve month high of $408.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.25 trillion, a PE ratio of 17.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.21. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $344.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $350.87.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.07 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th were given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 4th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.42%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 118,138 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.90, for a total value of $2,232,808.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total value of $149,606.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,386 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,125,015.20. This represents a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 441,399 shares of company stock valued at $8,677,053 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is a technology and internet services company best known as the parent company of Google. Its primary business, Google Services, includes online search, digital advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play, and a range of hardware and subscription products.

Alphabet also operates Google Cloud, which provides infrastructure, data analytics, cybersecurity, productivity software, and artificial intelligence services to businesses, governments, and other organizations.

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