Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stake Trimmed by Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P.

Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. cut its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.3% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,162,121 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 39,734 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 2.6% of Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $282,512,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after buying an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 32.2% in the second quarter. Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc. now owns 51,507 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,077,000 after buying an additional 12,547 shares in the last quarter. Jackson Square Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 38.9% during the second quarter. Jackson Square Capital LLC now owns 52,494 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,251,000 after acquiring an additional 14,704 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chickasaw Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 6.2% during the second quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 24,938 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,395,000 after acquiring an additional 1,450 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $330.00 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $311.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $254.85. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $340.49. The company has a market cap of $3.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Big AI monetization wins — Apple’s decision to build next‑gen Siri on Google’s Gemini (a central catalyst behind Alphabet topping a ~$4 trillion valuation) implies licensing revenue and much broader Gemini distribution, which supports revenue and margins. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst backing — recent upgrades and a higher price target (e.g., Bank of America raised its GOOGL target) are propping sentiment and provide near‑term buy‑side support. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: New commercial partnerships — Google announced a Woolworths pilot to add agentic AI to its Olive chatbot in Australia, expanding potential retail use cases and distribution for Google’s AI services. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Competitive positioning — DeepMind leadership and comments that Chinese models are “months” behind support Alphabet’s technical edge, but competition remains intense and will keep investment cycles high. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Antitrust fallout — Google asked a judge to defer an order forcing it to share search data while it appeals a ruling that found an illegal monopoly in search; ongoing remedies or eventual enforcement could materially affect the core search business and ad economics. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Copyright litigation risk — major publishers are seeking to join a class action alleging Google used copyrighted material to train its AI, creating potential licensing costs, damages or restrictions on training data. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Infrastructure headwinds — Google warns U.S. transmission system constraints are slowing data‑center hookups and could raise capex and delay cloud/AI capacity expansion, pressuring near‑term margins. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — a disclosed director sale (600 shares) is small but adds to mixed sentiment amid other headwinds. Read More.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at $2,798,832.60. The trade was a 23.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.48, for a total value of $9,213,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,337,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $662,526,494.12. The trade was a 1.37% 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 have sold 189,909 shares of company stock worth $57,927,282. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 price target (up previously from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. Mizuho set a $365.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Melius Research raised their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $333.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Loop Capital raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $260.00 to $320.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $326.31.

Alphabet 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.