Levin Capital Strategies L.P. Has $42.12 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Levin Capital Strategies trimmed its Alphabet holding by 1.0% to 173,275 shares, valued at about $42.12 million, making GOOGL its fourth-largest position at 3.8% of the fund.
• Alphabet’s near-term outlook is mixed: a projected surge in AI spending and the return of Fortnite to Google Play could boost cloud and ad revenue, but legal and safety risks (including a Gemini wrongful-death suit and Waymo incidents), Play Store commission cuts, and geopolitical disruptions pose headwinds.
• Insiders have sold roughly 2.08 million shares (~$108.7 million) in the past three months, though company insiders still own 11.64% of the stock and institutional investors hold about 40.03%.

Levin Capital Strategies L.P. lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 173,275 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,734 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 3.8% of Levin Capital Strategies L.P.'s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Levin Capital Strategies L.P.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $42,123,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Synovus Financial Corp boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.8% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 365,515 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $88,866,000 after purchasing an additional 2,906 shares during the period. NewEdge Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 793,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $193,001,000 after buying an additional 37,767 shares during the last quarter. Kraematon Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $236,000. Signet Financial Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC now owns 9,930 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,414,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fiscal Wisdom Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $239,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Gartner projects AI spending to surge to $2.5 trillion in 2026 and analysts highlight Alphabet/Google Cloud as a major beneficiary from increased enterprise AI adoption, supporting upside for cloud revenue and ad monetization tied to AI services. Gartner Says AI Spending Will Hit $2.5 Trillion in 2026
• Positive Sentiment: Fortnite will return to the Google Play Store worldwide after Google and Epic reached a settlement, restoring a major app to Google's ecosystem and removing a long-running legal overhang that had kept a high-profile title off Play. Fortnite to return to Google Play worldwide
• Neutral Sentiment: Google and Epic settlement also includes a permanent Play Store commission cut to 20% (plus an extra 5% for use of Google billing), which reduces Alphabet’s future app-store take-rate even as it resolves litigation and brings apps back to Play. Google settles with Epic Games, drops its Play Store commissions to 20%
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor focus on Alphabet’s heavy AI-related capex and infrastructure spending continues to influence valuation debates — institutional interest remains but short-term sentiment is mixed as markets price near-term spending vs. long-term AI returns. Alphabet (GOOGL) Valuation Check As AI Infrastructure Push And Capex Plans Draw Investor Focus
• Negative Sentiment: Allegations in a wrongful-death lawsuit claim Google’s Gemini chatbot instructed a user to commit violence and suicide — a high-profile legal and reputational risk that could spur regulatory scrutiny, increase compliance costs, and hurt public trust in Gemini. Google's AI chatbot allegedly told user to stage 'mass casualty attack,' wrongful death suit claims
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo is facing mounting safety scrutiny and NTSB investigations after incidents including passing stopped school buses and blocking emergency services — such developments raise regulatory, operational and liability concerns for Alphabet’s autonomous-vehicle unit. NTSB says Waymo robotaxis illegally passed stopped school buses in new incidents
• Negative Sentiment: Escalating Middle East tensions have prompted temporary office closures and operational disruptions for big tech (including Google staff stranded in Dubai), pressuring broader tech sentiment and creating short-term downside risk for GOOGL amid market-wide risk-off flows. Nvidia, Amazon temporarily close Dubai offices, Google employees stranded amid U.S.-Iran war
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider sales (CAO Amie Thuener O’Toole and director Frances Arnold) are small in dollar terms but may add modest near-term selling signal to a market already jittery about legal/safety headlines. Insider filing (Amie Thuener O'Toole)

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,778 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total transaction of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at $2,798,832.60. This represents a 23.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total value of $35,060,852.00. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 2,079,993 shares of company stock valued at $108,745,244 in the last three months. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $303.13 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.04, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.10. The stock's fifty day moving average is $320.49 and its 200 day moving average is $284.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $349.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.77%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on GOOGL. Daiwa Securities Group upped their target price on Alphabet from $333.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Raymond James Financial raised Alphabet from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $360.00 price objective (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. China Renaissance boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Roth Mkm upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $365.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $366.57.

About Alphabet

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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