Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC trimmed its Alphabet stake by 13.7%, selling 3,442 shares and leaving 21,609 shares worth about $6.78 million, making GOOG its 21st largest holding.
• Alphabet posted a strong Q1, beating estimates with $5.11 EPS (vs. $2.68) and $109.9B revenue (+21.8% y/y), and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 (0.2% yield).
• Positive catalysts and analyst optimism: reports say AI startup Anthropic may commit roughly $200 billion to Google Cloud over five years, several firms raised price targets, and MarketBeat shows a consensus "Buy" rating (target $362.73).

Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 13.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 21,609 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 3,442 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 1.2% of Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC's holdings, making the stock its 21st largest holding. Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,781,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Imprint Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth $32,000. Towne Trust Company N.A raised its holdings in Alphabet by 34.0% in the fourth quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 134 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Capital Management Investments LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1,438.5% in the fourth quarter. Creative Capital Management Investments LLC now owns 200 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Phillip Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Raymond James Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating and issued a $425.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Needham & Company LLC set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $450.00 target price (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $362.73.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $384.34 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.65 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $149.49 and a one year high of $388.96. The company's 50-day moving average is $313.83 and its 200 day moving average is $309.58.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $2.43. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.96 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.81 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 13.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 6.41%.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Major potential customer win: reports say AI startup Anthropic committed to spend roughly $200 billion with Google Cloud over five years, a revenue and capacity validation that could materially boost long‑term cloud sales and chip demand. Anthropic commits to spending $200 billion on Google's cloud and chips
• Positive Sentiment: Cloud momentum and AI “lock‑in”: Q1 cloud growth and reported backlog (~$460B+) point to steep enterprise AI demand and future revenue conversion, supporting higher earnings expectations. Alphabet's $460B AI Lock-In
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst bullishness: several firms raised price targets (including street‑high $515 and J.P. Morgan’s $460), which reinforces buy interest and helped push the shares to record levels. Top analyst sets $515 price target
• Positive Sentiment: Product/competitive move: Google is planning to sell TPUs directly, expanding its AI infrastructure offering and potentially improving cloud margins while intensifying competition with NVIDIA for AI compute. Google moves to sell TPUs directly
• Neutral Sentiment: Capital raising to fund buildout: Alphabet tapped the euro bond market with strong demand for a multi‑tranche offering — shows investor appetite for funding its AI/data‑center capex but increases near‑term debt issuance. Alphabet taps euro bond market with six‑tranche offering
• Neutral Sentiment: U.S. government oversight: Google (with Microsoft and xAI) agreed to give U.S. agencies early access to advanced models for security reviews — this signals trust from regulators but adds another review layer before deployments. What we know about US stress tests of Google, xAI and Microsoft AI models
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/privacy risk in Europe: a senior Google scientist warned that EU proposals to share search data with rivals could expose user information — raises potential regulatory and revenue risks for search. Top Google scientist says EU data measures pose privacy risk
• Negative Sentiment: Employee unrest and DoD work: classified defense AI contracts and related protests (DeepMind unionization vote, staff petitions) create reputational/operational risk and potential talent friction. Google DeepMind employees vote to unionize amid DoD deal
• Negative Sentiment: Near‑term sell signal/downgrade: at least one boutique manager downgraded Alphabet from strong‑buy to hold, which could weigh on sentiment for risk‑sensitive flows. Zacks / downgrade reference

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 955 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total value of $284,590.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 9,918 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,955,564. This trade represents a 8.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total transaction of $9,877,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,818,524 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $856,605,814.08. This represents a 1.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 158,553 shares of company stock worth $47,951,856 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Alphabet

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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