Gradient Investments LLC Grows Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Gradient Investments LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 492.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 57,008 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 47,390 shares during the quarter. Gradient Investments LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,844,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $53,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth about $53,000. Corsicana & Co. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $54,000. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $63,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Alphabet is among stocks that have received multiple analyst upgrades and raised price targets after strong AI and cloud results, underpinning longer‑term upside expectations. Zacks: Alphabet is a strong growth stock
• Positive Sentiment: Gemini monetization / retail tie‑ups: Gap will enable checkout inside Google’s Gemini, a step toward direct commerce monetization for the AI platform. This could help diversify revenue beyond search advertising. CNBC: Gap becomes first to offer checkout within Gemini
• Positive Sentiment: Cloud & partnerships: New deals — Openreach using Google AI to speed fibre rollout and BMO/CME launching a tokenized cash platform on Google Cloud — highlight enterprise demand for Google Cloud services and potential revenue tailwinds. Reuters: Openreach taps Google AI Reuters: BMO to launch tokenized cash platform with CME and Google Cloud
• Neutral Sentiment: Robotics / AI roadmap: DeepMind/Google partnership activity (e.g., Agile Robots) signals long‑term AI/robotics ambitions but is capital‑intensive and will take time to monetize. CNBC: Google partners with Agile Robots
• Neutral Sentiment: Regulatory/market structure watch: EU antitrust meetings with Big Tech and Google’s initiative in India to label verified investment apps are regulatory items to monitor — could mean more oversight but also proactive controls limiting consumer harm. Reuters: EU antitrust chief meets tech CEOs Reuters: Google to label verified investment apps in India
• Negative Sentiment: Landmark LA verdict — legal overhang: A Los Angeles jury found Google’s YouTube (and Meta’s Instagram) negligent in a youth social‑media addiction case, awarding compensatory damages and moving to a punitive phase. The decision creates precedent risk, could spur additional suits, and has been cited as a near‑term driver of selling pressure. Reuters: Jury reaches verdict in Meta, Google trial BusinessWire: $3M compensatory verdict
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/earnings risk: Investors remain concerned about Alphabet’s very large 2026 capex guidance, rising energy costs for AI/data centers, and a recent pullback in the stock — factors that could compress near‑term returns despite long‑term growth potential. Barron’s: Google stock slides toward bear market territory

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 price target (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Arete Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, February 9th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up from $365.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Pivotal Research raised their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $367.18.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total transaction of $33,934.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,418 shares in the company, valued at $5,580,469.82. This trade represents a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total value of $10,006,425.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,060 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $505,573,853.40. This represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,110,165 shares of company stock valued at $118,134,117. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $290.93 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $315.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $294.43. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $349.00. The company has a market capitalization of $3.52 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.10. 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:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 7.77%.

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.