A4 Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires New Shares in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

A4 Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 6,985 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,701,000. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.4% of A4 Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. WestEnd Advisors LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 58.7% during the second quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Fairman Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 121.3% in the 2nd quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Horrell Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 100.0% in the second quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 200 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Alphabet from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $315.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Truist Financial set a $350.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Loop Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, KeyCorp set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $343.47.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.5%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $323.10 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $350.15. The company has a market cap of $3.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.89, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $322.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $271.38.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.15 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat: Alphabet reported higher‑than‑expected revenue and EPS, Google Cloud grew ~48% YoY and backlog jumped to roughly $240B — proof of strong AI demand underpinning long‑term growth. Alphabet Crushes Earnings — MarketBeat
• Positive Sentiment: Product and ecosystem wins: Gemini adoption and enterprise traction (large token/API usage) are driving monetization across Search, YouTube and Cloud; Waymo is also using Google’s Genie‑3 model for virtual training — signals that AI investments are translating into product advantage. Waymo Taps Google’s Genie 3 — TipRanks
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst view is broadly positive but mixed on valuation: several price‑target raises and buy/overweight ratings highlight conviction in AI/cloud upside, while some firms flag a hold rating because of aggressive capex and near‑term margin pressure. New Analyst Forecast $395 — QuiverQuant
• Neutral Sentiment: Corporate moves: Alphabet announced a small quarterly dividend and continues to convert AI investments into subscriptions and ad monetization — long‑term positives, but limited near‑term impact on share price.
• Negative Sentiment: CapEx shock: management guided roughly $175–185B in 2026 CapEx (nearly double 2025), which spooked investors because it pushes spending and capital intensity into the spotlight and raises near‑term return uncertainty. That guidance is the primary reason shares fell today. Alphabet Resets the Bar for AI Spending — CNBC
• Negative Sentiment: Insider & fund selling: recent insider sales and public fund trimming (and some institutional position reductions) add selling pressure and amplify short‑term downside risk. Stock Down on Insider Selling — AmericanBankingNews
• Negative Sentiment: Policy & reputational risks: a proposed bill to regulate data‑center interconnection/charges and internal employee protests over government cloud contracts could raise operating costs or create reputational/headwind risks for data‑center expansion. Power for the People Act S.3682 — QuiverQuant Google Workers Demand End to Cloud Services — NYTimes

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.52, for a total value of $202,512.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 21,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,163,524.48. This trade represents a 2.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $335.18, for a total value of $10,893,350.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,179,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $730,481,906.96. The trade was a 1.47% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 2,070,464 shares of company stock worth $106,153,077 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Profile

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.