Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC Takes $18.25 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 75,053 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $18,245,000. Alphabet comprises 2.7% of Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $53,000. Corsicana & Co. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $54,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 37.9% in the second 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, S&T Bank PA boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 40.2% during the 2nd quarter. S&T Bank PA now owns 345 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $314.98 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $320.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $278.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.14, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Alphabet from $370.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. China Renaissance boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Alphabet from $310.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price target (up previously from $325.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group set a $415.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $365.86.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic cloud partnerships expanding addressable market — Google announced a deal with Sea Ltd to build AI tools for e‑commerce and gaming, which supports Google Cloud revenue growth in Southeast Asia and demonstrates enterprise demand for its AI stack. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum — Google is rolling Gemini‑powered, music‑focused generative‑AI features (also showing up at competitors), indicating faster consumer AI adoption that could boost engagement and future monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional support & analyst upgrades — recent 13F activity and analyst price‑target increases (and MarketBeat coverage) signal long‑term investor conviction that can underpin the stock. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: AI infrastructure arms race — NVIDIA–Meta mega‑deal and hyperscaler capex plans validate AI demand but raise competitive and capital‑intensity questions for Google; this is demand‑positive but increases the investment bar. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet exploring chip/partner strategies — WSJ reports Google is weighing ways to use its balance sheet to better compete with chip suppliers, a strategic move that could reduce long‑run costs or distract management depending on execution. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — recent disclosed sales by CEO Sundar Pichai and senior exec John Kent Walker (multi‑million dollar sales) can sap near‑term sentiment even if routine for compensation/liquidity reasons. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Security/legal risk — indictment of three engineers accused of stealing Google trade secrets and sending data to Iran raises potential IP, litigation and reputational risks that investors will watch. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: AI rotation/profit‑taking — some prominent managers have trimmed AI positions in recent 13F filings, which contributes to episodic pressure on hyperscaler multiples. Read More.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 933 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.55, for a total value of $314,001.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,337,229.80. This trade represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total transaction of $9,877,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,818,524 shares in the company, valued at approximately $856,605,814.08. The trade was a 1.14% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock valued at $119,145,289. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet 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.