WealthShield Partners LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

WealthShield Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 14.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 25,258 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 4,336 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.4% of WealthShield Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. WealthShield Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $9,026,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. EMC Capital Management purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $52,000. Finally, iSAM Funds UK Ltd purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at $53,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud revenue growth and expanding margins continue to support Alphabet’s AI investment strategy. Supporters argue that cloud growth—reportedly up 82% year over year—could eventually justify the company’s much higher spending. Google Cloud growth article
• Positive Sentiment: A federal judge rejected a forced breakup of Google’s ad-tech business, limiting the immediate structural risk to Alphabet. The company will instead face behavioral remedies, although the ad-network business recently contracted. Google ad-business ruling
• Positive Sentiment: New AI features in Gmail, Docs and Keep, along with continued Gemini development, could improve user engagement and strengthen Alphabet’s competitive position in generative AI. Rosenblatt also reaffirmed a buy rating with a $410 price target. Google AI product launch
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet will pay a quarterly dividend of $0.22 per share on September 14 to shareholders of record on September 4, providing a modest income component but unlikely to materially change the investment case. Alphabet dividend article
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet raised 2026 capital-spending guidance to approximately $195 billion–$205 billion. Second-quarter free cash flow turned negative as capital expenditures reached $44.9 billion, raising concerns that AI infrastructure spending may take years to generate adequate returns. Alphabet cloud margins and AI spending
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are also concerned about execution: Gemini 3.5 Pro reportedly remained delayed, while the company faces multiple securities-fraud investigations and continued scrutiny over its ad-tech practices. These issues add legal and competitive risk to an already expensive AI buildout. Gemini delay article

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $410.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. DZ Bank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. BMO Capital Markets set a $465.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $420.19.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $3,832,277.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total transaction of $387,061.50. Following the sale, the director owned 1,481 shares in the company, valued at $545,941.03. The trade was a 41.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 451,925 shares of company stock valued at $12,371,544. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $338.46 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $4.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.00, a P/E/G 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $349.02 and its 200 day moving average is $342.87. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $231.90 and a one year high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 4.42%.

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.