Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Position Lifted by Quilter Plc

Quilter Plc grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.1% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 891,272 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 51,061 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 3.7% of Quilter Plc’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Quilter Plc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $216,668,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after acquiring an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Washington Growth Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1,964.5% in the second quarter. Washington Growth Strategies LLC now owns 3,200 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $564,000 after purchasing an additional 3,045 shares during the period. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.0% in the second quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 4,198 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $740,000 after purchasing an additional 381 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fortis Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.7% during the 2nd quarter. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,214 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,153,000 after purchasing an additional 1,833 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $370.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Wolfe Research increased their target price on Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. CICC Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $240.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Arete Research upped their price target on Alphabet from $300.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 2nd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $357.46.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total transaction of $800,786.28. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 11,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,383,884.14. The trade was a 19.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total value of $10,383,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,272,119 shares in the company, valued at $725,942,020.50. The trade was a 1.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,067,686 shares of company stock worth $105,352,291 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet beat Q4 estimates with $113.8B revenue, $2.82 EPS, huge Google Cloud growth (48% y/y) and milestone annual revenue above $400B — evidence that AI and ads are driving durable top‑line momentum. Alphabet Crushes Earnings Again, Reports 48% Cloud Revenue Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Gemini/product adoption and a surging cloud backlog (reported at ~$240B) support longer‑term revenue leverage from AI investments — a structural growth argument investors and many analysts are citing. Google goes from laggard to leader as it pulls ahead of OpenAI with stellar AI growth
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple brokers raised price targets and reiterated buy/outperform views after the quarter (e.g., Citigroup, JPMorgan, RBC, Needham, Mizuho), providing analyst support under the share price. Multiple analyst price target raises (Benzinga)
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short interest data shows no meaningful short position change (reads as negligible/quiet on short‑selling activity), so moves are likely driven by flows and sentiment rather than a short squeeze.
• Neutral Sentiment: ETF/sector flows and inclusion chatter (new Big Tech ETFs) can amplify moves in GOOGL but are not company‑specific catalysts. Big Tech Core: New Burney ETF Packs Apple, Nvidia, Google, Broadcom Punch
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet guided to $175–$185B of capex for 2026 (aimed at AI compute and cloud), a shockingly large jump that has investors fretting about near‑term free cash flow and returns on incremental AI spend — the dominant proximate cause of recent weakness. Alphabet resets the bar for AI infrastructure spending (CNBC)
• Negative Sentiment: Wider market narrative: fears about excessive AI capex are prompting a tech sell‑off (FactSet noted >$1T wiped from big‑tech), which weighs on Alphabet alongside company‑specific capex concerns. Big Tech sees over $1 trillion wiped from stocks as fears of AI bubble ignite sell-off
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling was reported after the quarter, adding near‑term pressure on sentiment. Alphabet Shares Down After Insider Selling
• Negative Sentiment: Employee protests over Google Cloud contracts with immigration agencies pose reputational/legal risk that can create headline volatility. Google Workers Demand End to Cloud Services for Immigration Agencies

Alphabet Trading Down 2.5%

GOOGL stock opened at $322.86 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $321.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $271.29. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $349.00. The firm has a market cap of $3.90 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.77%.

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.