Sterling Investment Counsel LLC Buys 5,912 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Sterling Investment Counsel LLC increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 26.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 28,087 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,912 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 2.2% of Sterling Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest position. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,828,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $31,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 36.4% in the second quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. Corsicana & Co. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 37.9% during the 2nd quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its holdings in Alphabet by 77.6% during the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 348 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 152 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI & advertising momentum: Analysts and media posit that Alphabet’s Gemini/AI-search progress and a strong advertising engine are driving a renewed rally and expectations that the company can join the $4 trillion market-cap group. Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence Stock Will Become a Member of the $4 Trillion Club in 2026
• Positive Sentiment: Market-cap milestone: Alphabet has overtaken Apple to become the world’s second-most valuable public company — a status shift that can attract index/ETF flows and underpins momentum. Google Claims Apple’s Spot on Most-Valuable-Companies List
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street upgrades: Multiple analysts have raised price targets and issued bullish notes heading into 2026, reinforcing institutional demand and supporting higher valuations. Analyst revises Google stock price target for the next 12 months
• Neutral Sentiment: Wiz acquisition pending EU decision: The EU will decide on Alphabet’s $32B Wiz buy by Feb. 10 — resolution will remove a major overhang but could bring remedies or conditions. EU antitrust regulators to decide on Google’s Wiz deal by February 10
• Neutral Sentiment: Lawsuit settlements on AI chatbots: Alphabet and Character.AI settled suits tied to minors’ harm, which reduces immediate legal uncertainty but keeps reputational and regulatory scrutiny active. Google and Character.AI to Settle Lawsuit Over Teenager’s Death
• Negative Sentiment: App-store pressure from U.S. senators: Three Democratic senators urged Apple and Google to suspend Elon Musk’s X and Grok apps after allegations that Grok-enabled image generation facilitated sexualized images of minors — this directly implicates Google’s Play Store and could invite political/regulatory attention. Grok and X should be suspended from Apple, Google app stores, Democratic senators say
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares (SEC filing). The sale is small relative to his holdings but can be viewed negatively by some market participants. Sundar Pichai stock sale filing
• Negative Sentiment: Talent poaching: Nvidia hired a senior Google marketing executive as CMO — a signal that top talent is mobile amid fierce AI competition, which could concern investors about retention. Nvidia Hires Google Veteran as Its First Chief Marketing Officer

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $328.57 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $330.83. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $306.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $249.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 8.28%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total value of $5,614,173.81. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,972 shares in the company, valued at $13,531,453.08. This trade represents a 29.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.48, for a total transaction of $9,213,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,337,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $662,526,494.12. This represents a 1.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 225,187 shares of company stock valued at $66,695,036. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 price target (up from $250.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. President Capital lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $258.00 to $323.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Alphabet from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Melius Research raised their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Wolfe Research set a $380.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.19.

Alphabet Company 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.