Wedmont Private Capital Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Wedmont Private Capital increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 106,063 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,848 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 1.2% of Wedmont Private Capital’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $34,150,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $21,944,208,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $4,338,397,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,686,640,000 after purchasing an additional 15,159,273 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 28.0% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 51.7% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,607,232,000 after purchasing an additional 10,843,853 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Arete Research boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $279.00 to $357.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $370.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Alphabet from $375.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Three 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.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total transaction of $14,341,182.30. Following the sale, the insider owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This trade represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $35,060,852.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 2,110,165 shares of company stock valued at $118,134,117 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group raised its FY2026 and FY2027 EPS forecasts for Alphabet, a sign analysts see stronger near‑term earnings power and support for valuation (upgraded FY26 to $11.48 and FY27 to $13.41).
• Positive Sentiment: MarketBeat/analysts have been lifting price targets and issuing upgrades on GOOGL, reflecting continued bullishness around Gemini, cloud growth and ad resilience—institutional sentiment remains broadly constructive.
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial momentum: Google/DeepMind expanded robotics work with Agile Robots to embed Gemini Robotics models into hardware, and Gap will allow checkout inside Gemini—evidence of product adoption that can drive cloud/API revenue and monetization. Google partners with Agile Robots Gap becomes first to offer checkout within Gemini
• Neutral Sentiment: Google research announced a compression method that could cut LLM memory needs ~6x—this pressured memory-chip names (Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix). For Alphabet the implication is mixed: potential lower infrastructure cost per model over time, but also a changing hardware demand backdrop. A Google AI breakthrough pressures memory chip stocks
• Negative Sentiment: Landmark jury verdict in Los Angeles found YouTube negligent in a youth social‑media addiction suit and ordered compensatory damages; while the award is small vs. Alphabet’s size, the decision raises legal/regulatory risk and could spur more suits or stricter oversight—a clear near‑term headwind to sentiment. US jury verdicts against Meta, Google tee up fight over tech liability shield
• Negative Sentiment: Top India counsel Bijoya Roy resigned after 16 months—a high‑profile exit in a critical, regulatory‑intense market that could signal tougher government relations and execution risk in India. Google top India counsel quits

Alphabet Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $290.93 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $349.00. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $315.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $294.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.52 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 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 2.01.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

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.