Western Financial Corp CA Acquires 7,358 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Western Financial Corp CA increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 549.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 8,698 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,358 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.1% of Western Financial Corp CA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Western Financial Corp CA’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,723,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after acquiring an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY boosted its position in Alphabet by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $685,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 11.2% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $85,557,000 after acquiring an additional 48,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank boosted its position in Alphabet by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,495,000 after acquiring an additional 3,120 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, February 16th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $279.00 to $357.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $367.62.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $336.02 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.10 and a twelve month high of $349.00. The firm has a market cap of $4.06 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.08, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a 50 day moving average of $306.45 and a 200 day moving average of $300.68. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrade lifted sentiment — a recent analyst upgrade was cited as driving a ~1.3% bump in the stock, signaling near-term investor optimism. Alphabet Stock Price Up 1.3% on Analyst Upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Price-target and buy-rating momentum: Phillip Securities raised its target to $395 (maintaining a positive rating), and Stifel Nicolaus issued a buy — both support upside expectations. Phillip Securities adjusts price target on Alphabet to $395 Alphabet receives buy from Stifel Nicolaus
• Positive Sentiment: Data-center power deal: NiSource signed a long-term energy supply agreement to support a large Google data center in Indiana — improves operational continuity and long-term energy planning for cloud infrastructure. NiSource signs long-term power deal with Alphabet
• Positive Sentiment: New product capabilities bolster AI/services growth: Google announced personalized image generation tied to Gemini/Nano Banana, which can increase user engagement and product differentiation in consumer AI. Google will let users connect their photos to the Gemini chatbot
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings/estimates outlook remains constructive — analysts and services like Zacks highlight Alphabet’s strong surprise history and odds of another beat, supporting positive expectations but not a near-term certainty. Will Alphabet beat estimates again?
• Neutral Sentiment: AI/defense discussions: Reports say Google is in talks to let the U.S. Department of Defense deploy Gemini in classified settings — potential new contract avenue, but details and timing are uncertain. Google, Pentagon discuss classified AI deal
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry context and partner moves: Coverage highlighting Alphabet as a key cloud/AI player (Magnificent Seven rankings, AI/quantum thematic pieces) and partner expansions (e.g., GitLab) support the long-term growth narrative but are incremental. I Ranked the “Magnificent Seven” Stocks GitLab expands partnership with Google
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk: The European Commission outlined measures requiring Google to share search and related AI chat data with rivals under the Digital Markets Act — this is a significant regulatory headwind that could weaken search data exclusivity and ad targeting advantages in Europe. EU says Google should allow third-party search engines access to data

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total transaction of $33,934.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,580,469.82. The trade was a 0.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total transaction of $2,481,078.77. Following the sale, the insider owned 51,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,293,309.12. This represents a 14.79% 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 2,068,744 shares of company stock worth $104,505,914. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.