Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stock Holdings Decreased by YHB Investment Advisors Inc.

Key Points

• YHB Investment Advisors trimmed its Alphabet stake by 1.7% in Q4 to 155,276 shares (worth $48.6M), making GOOGL its fourth-largest holding and 3.4% of the firm's portfolio.
• Analysts are largely bullish with an overall rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $366.92, while several firms recently raised targets (Evercore $400, Stifel $395) even as a few remain cautious.
• Business drivers include expanding AI/cloud partnerships (Intel, Broadcom/Anthropic) and YouTube monetization moves, but Alphabet faces regulatory headwinds for Waymo and international content enforcement that could weigh on growth.

YHB Investment Advisors Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 155,276 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 2,690 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 3.4% of YHB Investment Advisors Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. YHB Investment Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $48,601,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Selective Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Selective Wealth Management Inc. now owns 4,356 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,450,000 after purchasing an additional 335 shares in the last quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 24,654 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $7,717,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. SWS Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 23.5% during the 4th quarter. SWS Partners now owns 42,875 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,420,000 after purchasing an additional 8,156 shares during the last quarter. Bay Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Bay Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,788 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,125,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 91,020 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $28,489,000 after acquiring an additional 1,161 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $400.00 price objective (up from $325.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Truist Financial set a $385.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up from $346.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group set a $348.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $366.92.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Stronger AI/cloud positioning: Google expanded its multi‑year AI infrastructure partnership with Intel to co‑develop processors and power Google Cloud AI workloads — a sign of durable demand for cloud AI capacity that supports Google Cloud revenue growth. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Broadcom and Anthropic deals validate Google’s AI infrastructure strategy and the broader market for non‑NVIDIA accelerators — a constructive signal for Alphabet’s AI cost and supply relationships. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and media bullishness on AI adoption: BNP Paribas and other commentators highlight Gemini and Anthropic as drivers that can take share in the generative AI market, underpinning ad/productivity monetization upside for Alphabet. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Monetization tailwind — YouTube raised U.S. Premium prices, which should boost ARPU and subscription revenue over time. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Bullish price‑target action from Mizuho (raised to $420) reinforces upside thesis for investors focused on long‑term AI/cloud gains. (No link)
• Neutral Sentiment: Short interest report is effectively meaningless/noisy for today’s move (data shows zero shares / reporting artifact), so it’s not the driver of the stock’s action. (No link)
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk for Waymo: A California bill would require more human operators for robotaxis, raising operating costs and regulatory uncertainty for Alphabet’s autonomous‑vehicle ambitions. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: International/content regulatory pressure: Indonesia issued a reprimand to YouTube over new social media rules for children, underscoring regional enforcement risk that can hit engagement or require costly compliance changes. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst downgrade pressure: Wolfe Research trimmed its price target from $390 to $360, which increases short‑term selling pressure despite the firm still rating the stock “outperform.” (No link)

Alphabet Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $317.20 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.34, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.12. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $146.10 and a 52 week high of $349.00. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $306.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $298.35. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 7.77%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total transaction of $10,006,425.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,060 shares in the company, valued at approximately $505,573,853.40. This trade represents a 1.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total transaction of $318,580.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 4,631 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,405,091.71. The trade was a 18.48% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 2,069,344 shares of company stock valued at $104,708,426 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

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.

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