PFG Advisors Increases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• PFG Advisors increased its stake in Alphabet by 7.5% in Q3 to 76,885 shares (about $18.7 million), making GOOG roughly 0.8% of PFG’s holdings and its 20th-largest position.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive—MarketBeat shows a consensus "Buy" with a consensus target of $343.90, while individual price targets cited range from $300 to $420 with several recent upgrades.
• Alphabet beat Q4 estimates (EPS $2.82 vs. $2.59; revenue $113.8B vs. $111.2B) and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 (0.3% yield; ex-dividend March 9).

PFG Advisors grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 7.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 76,885 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 5,360 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 0.8% of PFG Advisors' holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest position. PFG Advisors' holdings in Alphabet were worth $18,725,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. NerdWallet Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,214,000. ProVise Management Group LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. ProVise Management Group LLC now owns 178,285 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $43,421,000 after acquiring an additional 4,029 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG raised its stake in Alphabet by 11.5% during the 3rd quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG now owns 277,047 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $67,474,000 after acquiring an additional 28,480 shares in the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd lifted its position in Alphabet by 20.3% in the third quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 424,738 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $103,789,000 after acquiring an additional 71,777 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.2% in the third quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 351,838 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $85,690,000 after acquiring an additional 4,107 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on GOOG shares. DA Davidson set a $300.00 price objective on Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a "market perform" rating and issued a $345.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Pivotal Research reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $420.00 price target (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Scotiabank reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $400.00 price objective (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $343.90.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large enterprise/cloud wins and AI demand: Google Cloud deals (CVS health AI platform) and reported TPU leasing by Meta point to higher recurring cloud revenue and infrastructure utilization that support near‑term revenue growth. CVS taps Google Cloud Meta leases Google TPUs
• Positive Sentiment: Solid fundamentals/analyst support: Q4 results and earnings beats reinforce the “quality growth” narrative, and Bank of America’s reiterated Buy/$370 target keeps bull case intact. Q4 quality growth Bank of America maintains $370
• Neutral Sentiment: Anthropic access clarified: Google says Anthropic remains available for non‑defense uses after a DoD blacklist — this reduces near‑term disruption risk to customers but leaves policy uncertainty around defense contracts. Google on Anthropic availability
• Neutral Sentiment: Market narrative shifting: Analysts note GOOG’s strong 12‑month run has moved it from a “value” label to an execution/AI‑growth story — bullish if growth continues, but raises expectations. Forbes valuation piece
• Negative Sentiment: Geopolitical / physical risk to infrastructure: Reports that hyperscaler data centers are becoming military targets in the Iran war increase operational and security risk for cloud operations and potential outages. Data centers targeted
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal headwinds and fee cuts: The Epic Games settlement (lower Play Store commissions) and a high‑profile Gemini wrongful‑death lawsuit raise revenue/margin and liability concerns for consumer services. Play Store settlement Gemini lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory scrutiny on Waymo / AV safety and technical/short‑term chart pressure: NTSB/industry scrutiny of autonomous‑vehicle safety plus technical analysts calling a short thesis add to near‑term selling pressure. Waymo NTSB scrutiny Chart short thesis

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $298.30 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $350.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.61 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.59, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $320.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $287.43. 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:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. The firm 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 business's revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.15 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,778 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock worth $118,605,094. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Company 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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