Provident Living Financial Services Inc. Purchases Shares of 6,431 Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Provident Living Financial Services purchased 6,431 shares of Alphabet in Q4 (about $2.01 million), making GOOGL its 10th-largest holding at roughly 1.9% of the firm's portfolio.
• Multiple analysts raised price targets amid bullish signals around Google Cloud and AI (TPU/inference expansion and Marvell talks), with recent targets including BMO $400, Canaccord $415 and Cantor Fitzgerald $395 and a consensus rating of Moderate Buy (consensus target $368.94).
• Insiders sold more than 2.06 million shares (≈$104.85 million) over the last quarter, including CEO Sundar Pichai's sale of 32,500 shares, while insiders still own about 11.55% of the company.

Provident Living Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 6,431 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,013,000. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.9% of Provident Living Financial Services Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Kentucky Trust Co raised its position in Alphabet by 142.9% in the 4th quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $53,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $53,000. Finally, Corsicana & Co. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $54,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple analyst upgrades and higher price targets signal bullish expectations around Google Cloud and AI monetization: Cantor Fitzgerald raised its target to $395 and KeyCorp lifted its target to $380, citing momentum into Cloud Next. Cantor Fitzgerald price target raise KeyCorp target lift
• Positive Sentiment: Google is expanding its TPU/AI-inference push and getting growing demand from big AI customers (Anthropic, Meta). That strengthens cloud differentiation and potential high-margin hardware/service revenues. Google expands TPU push
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Google is in talks with Marvell to develop inference-focused AI chips point to verticalization of Google's AI stack (could reduce reliance on external suppliers and improve cloud differentiation). These reports lifted chip names and echo the TPU push. Reuters: Marvell-Google talks
• Neutral Sentiment: Some coverage and trade commentary highlight heavy investor attention and short-term volatility around GOOGL (Zacks pieces noting larger-than-market moves); useful for traders but not necessarily directional for fundamentals. Zacks: Why GOOGL dipped
• Neutral Sentiment: Initial Marvell gains were pared after analysts disputed the scope/timing of any Google deal, introducing uncertainty about the immediate impact and which vendors will benefit. Marvell gains pared
• Negative Sentiment: eMarketer projects Meta will overtake Google in digital ad revenue this year — a red flag for Google’s core ad growth narrative and a potential headwind for revenue expectations. eMarketer: Meta set to surpass Google
• Negative Sentiment: Investor concern about rising AI-related spending (reports that Alphabet will materially increase AI investment) can pressure near-term margins even as it supports long-term growth—this likely contributed to today's pullback after a strong April rally. Fool on AI spending concerns

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total value of $9,877,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,818,524 shares in the company, valued at approximately $856,605,814.08. This trade represents a 1.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,069,794 shares of company stock valued at $104,854,147. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $415.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on Alphabet from $370.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Arete Research raised their target price on Alphabet from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $368.94.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.2%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $337.42 on Tuesday. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $307.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $302.81. The company has a market capitalization of $4.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.12. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.10 and a 52-week high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 11.53 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.77%.

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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