PYA Waltman Capital LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• PYA Waltman Capital reduced its Alphabet stake by 4.5% in the second quarter, selling 3,333 shares and retaining 71,337 shares valued at approximately $25.5 million. Alphabet remains the firm’s sixth-largest holding and represents 6.2% of its portfolio.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish on GOOGL, with a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $420.19, despite some target reductions.
• Alphabet reported strong quarterly results, including $119.8 billion in revenue and $9.11 in EPS, while AI infrastructure spending, halted buybacks and potential legal risks remain concerns for investors.

PYA Waltman Capital LLC lessened its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 71,337 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 3,333 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 6.2% of PYA Waltman Capital LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. PYA Waltman Capital LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $25,494,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.0% during the first quarter. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 477 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $137,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Rockbridge Investment Management LCC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the first 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 stake in Alphabet by 0.9% in the first quarter. Ruggaard & Associates LLC now owns 2,921 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $840,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Cadia Private Client LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.1% in the first quarter. Cadia Private Client LLC now owns 2,589 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $744,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evansbrook LLC increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud remains a major growth catalyst. Alphabet’s cloud backlog reportedly reached $514 billion after second-quarter revenue growth of 82%, reinforcing expectations that Cloud could become a larger long-term earnings driver alongside Search. Alphabet cloud backlog article
• Positive Sentiment: AI concerns are benefiting Alphabet relative to some peers. Alphabet and Meta have attracted investor interest even as concerns about excessive frontier-model spending weigh on parts of the technology sector. A possible slowdown could favor established platforms with strong cash flows, distribution and proprietary infrastructure. Google and Meta AI concerns article
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo is expanding commercially. Alphabet’s autonomous-driving unit has begun offering robotaxi rides to the general public in Las Vegas, its first Nevada market, expanding a potential future growth business. Waymo Las Vegas article
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is broadening its AI ecosystem. Giving engineers access to Anthropic’s Claude may improve coding productivity and reflects Alphabet’s investment exposure to Anthropic, although Claude also competes with Google’s own AI models. Google Claude access article
• Neutral Sentiment: Technical momentum is improving. Stockton believes Alphabet may be emerging from its multi-month correction, while recent commentary highlights its cloud position, YouTube scale and custom AI chips as potential competitive advantages.
• Negative Sentiment: AI infrastructure spending is pressuring capital returns. Reports say Alphabet has halted buybacks, its share count is rising and debt has increased as it funds data centers, energy contracts and AI capacity. Local opposition to new data centers could also raise costs or delay projects. Big Tech buybacks article
• Negative Sentiment: Investor sentiment faces legal overhang. Multiple law firms are publicizing securities-fraud investigations involving Alphabet. These announcements do not establish wrongdoing but could add volatility and potential litigation risk. Alphabet securities investigation article

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on GOOGL. Truist Financial set a $420.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $395.00 target price (down from $445.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. New Street Research raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $425.00 price target (up from $405.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $420.19.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.71, for a total transaction of $27,692.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,995 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,414,801.45. This trade represents a 0.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total transaction of $149,606.80. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 27,386 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,125,015.20. This represents a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 450,875 shares of company stock worth $11,984,482. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $349.39 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $235.84 and a one year high of $408.61. The firm has a market cap of $4.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.55, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a current ratio of 2.72. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $346.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $344.15.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%.The company had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.07 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 4th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is a technology and holding company founded in 2015 through a restructuring of Google. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and operates globally, serving consumers, businesses, advertisers and developers across numerous countries and regions.

Alphabet's largest business is Google Services, which includes Google Search, online advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and hardware products such as Pixel devices. These products support activities including internet search, digital content distribution, mobile computing, online communications and advertising.

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