Westwood Wealth Management Trims Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Westwood Wealth Management reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 98.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,346 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 69,558 shares during the quarter. Westwood Wealth Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $421,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also 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 about $31,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $53,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $53,000. Finally, Corsicana & Co. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.5%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $280.86 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.40 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $349.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $314.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $294.34.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This trade represents a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total transaction of $318,580.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,631 shares in the company, valued at $1,405,091.71. This represents a 18.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,110,165 shares of company stock valued at $118,134,117 over the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI efficiency gains are market-moving — Google’s “TurboQuant”/model-compression work and Gemini upgrades are being credited with lowering compute/memory needs, improving AI gross margins and product differentiation versus rivals. That dynamic is pressuring memory-chip suppliers but supports Alphabet’s long-term AI cost advantage. CNBC: Google AI TurboQuant & memory chips
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment is bullish: MarketBeat and other houses have repeatedly upgraded GOOGL this year and Erste Group nudged up FY2026–FY2027 EPS forecasts, keeping price targets well above current levels — a tailwind for longer-term investor confidence. MarketBeat: Analyst upgrades
• Positive Sentiment: Fundamentals remain strong: recent quarterly beats, robust Google Cloud growth, accelerating Gemini adoption and large cloud backlog provide revenue visibility that many analysts cite as justification for buying the pullback. MarketBeat: Fundamentals & Gemini adoption
• Neutral Sentiment: ETF and trading-flow noise: new ETFs and covered‑call products tied to AI/mega-cap names (including GOOGL) are shifting short‑term flows; this can amplify volatility but isn’t a company-specific fundamental change. Benzinga: JUDO ETF
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-term ETF winners/losers commentary around Google’s AI news is driving rotation between AI and memory-linked funds; this is market structure-driven rather than a direct change to Alphabet’s revenue trajectory. Zacks: ETF winners & losers
• Negative Sentiment: Landmark jury verdicts found YouTube (Google) liable in a social‑media addiction trial and ordered compensatory damages, creating legal and reputational overhang. Markets view this as precedent-setting risk that could lead to more suits, settlements or regulation — a material sentiment drag even if the immediate dollar amount is immaterial to Alphabet’s balance sheet. Reuters: Jury verdicts against Meta & Google
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and execution friction in key markets — including a high-profile resignation of Google’s top India counsel amid regulatory tensions — adds uncertainty to growth and compliance costs overseas. Reuters: India counsel resignation

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. KeyCorp set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. 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, February 5th. Pivotal Research increased their price target on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Roth Mkm raised their price target on Alphabet from $365.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, DZ Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, February 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $367.18.

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.