Bell Bank Trims Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Bell Bank trimmed its stake in Alphabet by 9.6% in Q4, selling 3,722 shares and ending the period with 34,955 shares worth about $10.97 million.
• Alphabet beat Q4 expectations with $2.82 EPS (vs. $2.59) and $113.83 billion in revenue (up 18% YoY), and the consensus analyst rating is Buy with a $345.71 price target.
• Insiders sold 2,092,234 shares valued at approximately $112.49 million over the last quarter, while company insiders still hold about 12.99% of stock.

Bell Bank lessened its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 9.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 34,955 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 3,722 shares during the period. Bell Bank's holdings in Alphabet were worth $10,969,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Imprint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $40,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 145.0% in the third quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 196 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 56.8% during the third quarter. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC now owns 218 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 5.0%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $286.71 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $311.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $296.33. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $350.15. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock has a market cap of $3.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.15 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 955 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total transaction of $284,590.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 9,918 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,955,564. The trade was a 8.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total transaction of $318,580.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,631 shares in the company, valued at $1,405,091.71. This represents a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,092,234 shares of company stock valued at $112,487,971. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp set a $370.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $348.00 target price (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $360.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Citigroup reissued a "market outperform" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $365.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, January 5th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $345.71.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google introduced Veo 3.1 Lite, a lower‑cost video AI model (same speed as Veo 3.1 Fast but at roughly half the cost) — this can broaden developer adoption, increase Google Cloud inference volume and improve monetization of AI services. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet rolled out Lyria 3 Pro for longer AI‑generated music tracks (up to 3 minutes), expanding its creative AI product stack and potential content‑creation revenue/use cases. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains constructive on Alphabet’s AI/cloud opportunity: analysts highlight strong cloud growth, big backlog and high price targets — supportive background for multiple‑quarter upside. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Google researchers published a paper showing quantum computers may reduce resources needed to break ECDLP‑256 (bitcoin encryption) by ~20x — underscores Google’s R&D leadership but has limited direct revenue impact for Alphabet. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: GOOG’s weight in major ETFs (QQQ, VTI, VOO) means passive/ETF flows amplify moves — gains in broader tech/AI names helped bid the stock. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/regulatory headlines remain a drag: coverage of a social‑media addiction verdict and related lawsuits has created headline risk and prompted caution among some investors (appeals expected). Article Title Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Publishers reported traffic/margin pressure from Google search changes (e.g., Future Plc margin warning), highlighting potential downstream ad‑revenue and partnership frictions. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory scrutiny continues globally (e.g., Indonesian summons over child social media curbs), a reminder of policy risks that can create episodic volatility. Article Title

Alphabet Profile

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.

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