Commerce Bank Reduces Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Commerce Bank trimmed its Alphabet stake by 0.9% in the second quarter, selling 25,086 shares and retaining 2.67 million shares worth approximately $953.7 million. Alphabet remains the bank’s fourth-largest holding, representing 4.2% of its portfolio.
• Institutional investors own about 40.03% of Alphabet, while several smaller funds increased their positions during the first quarter; insiders, however, sold 451,925 shares worth $12.4 million over the past 90 days.
• Analysts maintain a broadly bullish view, with a consensus “Buy” rating and a $420.19 price target, though investors face risks from Alphabet’s higher AI spending, negative second-quarter free cash flow, legal scrutiny and reported Gemini delays.

Commerce Bank lessened its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 0.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,668,769 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 25,086 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 4.2% of Commerce Bank's portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Commerce Bank's holdings in Alphabet were worth $953,738,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.0% in the first quarter. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 477 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $137,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Rockbridge Investment Management LCC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Rockbridge Investment Management LCC now owns 5,460 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,570,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Ruggaard & Associates LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Ruggaard & Associates LLC now owns 2,921 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $840,000 after buying an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Cadia Private Client LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Cadia Private Client LLC now owns 2,589 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $744,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evansbrook LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Evansbrook LLC now owns 9,522 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,738,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud revenue growth and expanding margins continue to support Alphabet’s AI investment strategy. Supporters argue that cloud growth—reportedly up 82% year over year—could eventually justify the company’s much higher spending. Google Cloud growth article
• Positive Sentiment: A federal judge rejected a forced breakup of Google’s ad-tech business, limiting the immediate structural risk to Alphabet. The company will instead face behavioral remedies, although the ad-network business recently contracted. Google ad-business ruling
• Positive Sentiment: New AI features in Gmail, Docs and Keep, along with continued Gemini development, could improve user engagement and strengthen Alphabet’s competitive position in generative AI. Rosenblatt also reaffirmed a buy rating with a $410 price target. Google AI product launch
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet will pay a quarterly dividend of $0.22 per share on September 14 to shareholders of record on September 4, providing a modest income component but unlikely to materially change the investment case. Alphabet dividend article
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet raised 2026 capital-spending guidance to approximately $195 billion–$205 billion. Second-quarter free cash flow turned negative as capital expenditures reached $44.9 billion, raising concerns that AI infrastructure spending may take years to generate adequate returns. Alphabet cloud margins and AI spending
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are also concerned about execution: Gemini 3.5 Pro reportedly remained delayed, while the company faces multiple securities-fraud investigations and continued scrutiny over its ad-tech practices. These issues add legal and competitive risk to an already expensive AI buildout. Gemini delay article

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $445.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. New Street Research lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $410.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Pivotal Research reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $475.00 target price (up from $470.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $420.19.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Walker sold 8,998 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total value of $3,142,911.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 75,290 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. This represents a 10.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total transaction of $3,832,277.26. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 451,925 shares of company stock worth $12,371,544 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $338.46 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $231.90 and a one year high of $408.61. The company has a market cap of $4.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.64. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $349.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $342.87.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%.The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.

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