Kieckhefer Group LLC Buys 12,252 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Kieckhefer Group LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1,403.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,252 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 1.8% of Kieckhefer Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Kieckhefer Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,472,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOG. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 369,922,502 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $130,704,718,000 after buying an additional 5,164,200 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 190,923,442 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $67,458,980,000 after acquiring an additional 5,208,690 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 24,595,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,693,281,000 after purchasing an additional 508,718 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 22,048,456 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,918,805,000 after acquiring an additional 517,108 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 22.9% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 21,922,379 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,288,654,000 after purchasing an additional 4,083,758 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google launched Gemini 4 Argon, a flagship AI model for developers, businesses and paying users. The model is being positioned as particularly strong in coding and finance and legal knowledge work, reinforcing Alphabet’s effort to compete in the rapidly growing generative-AI market. Google launches flagship AI model Gemini 4 Argon for developers and businesses
• Positive Sentiment: An analyst said Alphabet’s internally developed AI chips could unlock as much as $100 billion in value by 2028. In-house chips could reduce dependence on outside suppliers, improve AI economics and create a potentially meaningful new revenue stream. Alphabet could unlock $100 billion from AI chips by 2028
• Positive Sentiment: BNP Paribas raised its price target for Alphabet, adding to bullish analyst expectations ahead of the company’s third-quarter results. Investors are watching Google Cloud growth, AI monetization and capital spending for evidence that recent investments are producing returns. Google stock gets a price target boost
• Positive Sentiment: Google Play will let users privately install personal, “vibe-coded” Android applications without publishing them publicly. The feature could encourage experimentation with AI-generated software and increase engagement with Google Play and Android. Google Play now supports private vibe-coded apps
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s 3.59-gigawatt nuclear power agreement with Constellation supports the electricity needs of its AI data centers and may improve long-term capacity planning, but it also underscores the substantial cost of expanding AI infrastructure. Google and Constellation sign nuclear power deal
• Negative Sentiment: Several law firms are publicizing a securities class action alleging Alphabet misrepresented the development progress of its Gemini 3.5 Pro model, including coding and training-data setbacks. The litigation creates headline and potential financial risk, although the allegations have not been proven. Alphabet securities fraud class action announcement
• Negative Sentiment: Commentary questioning whether Alphabet’s strong reported earnings benefited from non-operating gains, while data-center spending exceeded operating cash generation, highlights execution and free-cash-flow risks. Investors may remain cautious until the upcoming earnings report clarifies AI spending returns.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $425.00 target price (up from $405.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Arete Research increased their target price on Alphabet from $425.00 to $450.00 in a report on Monday, July 6th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $395.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 28th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Freedom Capital upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $421.95.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total transaction of $3,832,277.26. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 83 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.45, for a total value of $28,257.35. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 19,076 shares in the company, valued at $6,494,424.20. This represents a 0.43% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 441,399 shares of company stock valued at $8,677,053. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG traded up $1.99 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $350.96. 6,730,952 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,267,902. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.63, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.19. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $241.18 and a twelve month high of $404.47. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $342.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $347.52.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.87 by $6.24. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $116.53 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. The firm’s revenue was up 24.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.31 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is a technology holding company best known as the parent company of Google. Established in 2015 through a corporate restructuring, Alphabet oversees Google and a collection of businesses focused on technology, innovation and emerging industries. Sundar Pichai serves as Alphabet’s chief executive officer and also leads Google.

Google is Alphabet’s primary business and operates an internet ecosystem that includes Google Search, online advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and Google Photos.