Live Oak Investment Partners Sells 1,963 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Live Oak Investment Partners decreased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 18.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,716 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,963 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.7% of Live Oak Investment Partners’ holdings, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Live Oak Investment Partners’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,735,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Imprint Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Towne Trust Company N.A boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 34.0% during the 4th quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 134 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lynch Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $61,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Reported huge Anthropic commitment to Google Cloud — The Information/Reuters reported Anthropic has agreed to spend roughly $200 billion with Google Cloud over multiple years, a deal that would materially boost cloud bookings and long‑term revenue visibility. Anthropic commits $200B to Google Cloud (Reuters)
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts turning more bullish and lifting price targets — Multiple firms have raised targets (including a street‑high $515 note), citing AI upside, custom models and accelerating cloud monetization, supporting higher valuation multiples. Analyst $515 target (TipRanks)
• Positive Sentiment: Record highs and strong Q1 fundamentals — Investors are pricing in Q1 beats (EPS and revenue), 60%+ cloud growth and a ballooning cloud backlog that underpins multi‑year revenue conversion. That momentum is driving buying interest. Alphabet hits record highs (Yahoo)
• Positive Sentiment: Product / infrastructure moves could expand addressable market — Google moving to sell TPUs directly and scale AI compute options could accelerate revenue capture and challenge competitors in AI infrastructure. Google to sell TPUs directly (247WallSt)
• Neutral Sentiment: U.S. government access and stress‑testing of AI models — The administration expanded programs to let government scientists and agencies review unreleased models (including DeepMind) to assess risks; this is a mix of oversight and validation. US stress tests of AI models (Reuters)
• Neutral Sentiment: Capital markets: large euro bond sale with strong demand — Alphabet tapped the euro market with a multi‑tranche offering to fund AI infrastructure; strong order books reduce financing risk but also highlight heavy near‑term CapEx plans. Euro bond offering (Reuters)
• Negative Sentiment: Employee unrest and DoD/defense work — DeepMind staff have pushed for union recognition and protested military contracts; classified DoD engagements raise reputational and retention risks that could affect operations. DeepMind union vote over military deals (Business Insider)
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/privacy push in EU — A top Google scientist warned that EU proposals to share search data with rivals could expose user data, signaling potential regulatory headwinds and business model risk if rules tighten. EU data sharing concerns (Reuters)

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.00, for a total value of $37,842.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,621 shares in the company, valued at $6,908,391. This represents a 0.54% 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, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total value of $178,701.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,923,235.59. This trade represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 158,553 shares of company stock valued at $47,951,856. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $384.34 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $149.49 and a 1 year high of $388.96. The company has a market cap of $4.65 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.32, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50-day moving average is $313.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $309.58.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $2.43. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.96 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.81 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 13.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.41%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $425.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Phillip Securities lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on Alphabet from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $362.73.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.