Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Acquires 3,226 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 79,805 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,226 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 1.2% of Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $21,489,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Truist Financial Corp increased its position in Alphabet by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 2,546,012 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $448,684,000 after purchasing an additional 56,295 shares in the last quarter. Moment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the second quarter. Moment Partners LLC now owns 5,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,039,000 after buying an additional 504 shares during the last quarter. Welch Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% during the second quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 64,262 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,325,000 after buying an additional 2,467 shares in the last quarter. Brooktree Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth $352,000. Finally, Griffin Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,277,000 after acquiring an additional 7,180 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Truist Financial set a $350.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $365.00 price target (up from $320.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, January 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. CIBC lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet to $315.00 in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $233.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-two have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $334.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total value of $5,614,173.81. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,531,453.08. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,337,119 shares in the company, valued at $662,526,494.12. The trade was a 1.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 2,066,753 shares of company stock valued at $103,358,040 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google rolled out Project Genie, an AI model that can generate fully rendered, interactive 3D worlds from simple prompts — a direct competitive advantage for Google in AI content creation that pressured gaming rivals (a potential long-term revenue and platform win for Alphabet). Videogame stocks slide on Google’s AI model that turns prompts into playable worlds
• Positive Sentiment: Project Genie coverage specifically names Unity and Roblox as being hurt by the announcement, underscoring that Google’s tech could displace parts of the gaming content creation stack — bullish for Alphabet’s AI moat and cloud/AI services demand. Google’s Project Genie Hammers Gaming Stocks. Unity Software and Roblox Sink.
• Positive Sentiment: Google disrupted a large residential proxy network (IPIDEA), claiming it removed millions of devices from abuse — a reputational and security win that reduces fraud and could lower costs/risks for Google services. Google disrupts large residential proxy network, reducing devices used by ‘millions’
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo expanded airport robotaxi service in San Francisco — a commercial growth milestone for Alphabet’s autonomous-vehicle unit that supports long-term service monetization. Waymo Opens Up Airport Service in San Francisco. Everything to Know About the Robotaxi
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and outlets are prepping for Alphabet’s upcoming Q4 results; estimate-driven coverage (Zacks) focuses attention on key metrics and could amplify post-earnings moves. Ahead of Alphabet (GOOGL) Q4 Earnings: Get Ready With Wall Street Estimates for Key Metrics
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry write-ups compare Alphabet to rivals in AI infrastructure (CoreWeave, Amazon) and note that Amazon/Google moves are chipping at Nvidia’s exclusivity in AI chips — a mixed competitive backdrop for cloud/AI spend. CRVW vs. GOOGL: Which Stock Wins the AI Infrastructure Race?
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage noting Amazon and Google eating into Nvidia’s chip dominance signals broader industry capex and partnership shifts — relevant to Alphabet’s cloud/TPU strategy but not an immediate stock catalyst. Amazon and Google Eat Into Nvidia’s A.I. Chip Supremacy
• Negative Sentiment: A federal jury found former Google engineer Linwei Ding guilty of stealing trade secrets and uploading internal AI materials to personal cloud accounts — a headline that highlights IP risk and could trigger internal reviews, compliance costs or client concerns. Former Google engineer found guilty of espionage and theft of AI tech
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo reported an incident where a robotaxi struck a child near a school and the NHTSA opened an investigation — a regulatory and PR risk for Alphabet’s AV program that could delay rollouts or invite additional oversight. A Waymo hit a child near an elementary school. The NHTSA is investigating

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $338.00 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The firm has a market cap of $4.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.33, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $320.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $266.15. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $342.29.

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.