Captrust Financial Advisors Buys 104,608 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,552,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 104,608 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 1.3% of Captrust Financial Advisors’ portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Captrust Financial Advisors’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $620,505,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $31,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $53,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $53,000. Corsicana & Co. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $54,000. Finally, Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wells Fargo and other analysts have moved upbeat on Alphabet, citing stronger AI and cloud positioning and raising price targets, supporting investor optimism about future revenue and compute advantage. Alphabet (GOOGL) Sees Optimistic Coverage From Analysts
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet paid its first 2026 dividend of $0.21 per share on March 16, a concrete cash return that can support demand from income-oriented investors. Google stock just paid dividends; here’s how much investors received
• Positive Sentiment: Research houses continue to reiterate buy/overweight ratings (Needham reiterated a buy), reinforcing buy-side conviction and supporting price momentum. Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC
• Positive Sentiment: Google procurement teams reportedly visited China to discuss buying liquid cooling gear from local suppliers — a sign of continued data‑center expansion and potential cost/efficiency gains for its cloud and AI compute footprint. Google in talks with China’s Envicool, others to buy data centre cooling systems, sources say
• Neutral Sentiment: Multiple market write-ups (Zacks, Yahoo, Motley Fool summaries) note Alphabet as a trending/overperforming stock due to AI and cloud tailwinds, keeping the name in retail and institutional screens but not providing new catalysts. Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) Outperforms Broader Market: What You Need to Know
• Negative Sentiment: European publishers and tech firms are pressing the EU to accelerate a probe and impose a fine over alleged search favoritism, creating regulatory uncertainty that could pressure margins or fines down the road. Exclusive: European publishers, tech firms urge EU to speed up fine on Google over search
• Negative Sentiment: Some analysts flag valuation and near‑term margin pressure as capex for AI compute ramps and higher operating costs could limit upside despite growth, a narrative that may cap multiple expansion. Is Alphabet Stock’s 25.55X PE Still Worth it? Buy, Sell, or Hold?

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 target price (up from $325.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Bank of America raised their price objective on Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, China Renaissance boosted their target price on Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $367.18.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total transaction of $9,859,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,674,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $508,028,012.80. This trade represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total transaction of $284,590.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 9,918 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,955,564. This represents a 8.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,076,615 shares of company stock worth $107,809,111. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $310.92 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $318.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $291.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.76 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $349.00.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.77%.

About Alphabet

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.