Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Holdings Raised by Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC

Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 49,503 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,902 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 1.0% of Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,494,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth about $416,217,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,277,000 after purchasing an additional 7,180 shares during the last quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 23.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,401,000 after purchasing an additional 4,241 shares during the last quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 21.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 50,064 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,171,000 after purchasing an additional 8,746 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its position in Alphabet by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,666,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $405,131,000 after purchasing an additional 60,831 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Raymond James Financial raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Bank of America upped their target price on Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Pivotal Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Phillip Securities upped their target price on Alphabet from $340.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, President Capital upped their price target on Alphabet from $323.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.25.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Report that Google is in talks with Marvell to develop two new AI inference chips — investors see this as a move to diversify/customize AI hardware away from dominant suppliers, boosting confidence in Google’s infrastructure strategy and potential margin leverage. Marvell shares gain on report of deal talks with Google to develop two AI chips
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst target upgrades and an upgrade reported this week have raised upside expectations (one published target moved to $400), which can attract momentum buyers and support higher valuations. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $400.00
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet secured a long‑term power agreement for a large Indiana data center, reducing energy‑supply uncertainty for cloud/data‑center expansion — a favorable operational development for Google Cloud growth. NiSource signs long-term power deal with Alphabet, expands Amazon agreement
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum: Google is rolling photo integration into Gemini (and Nano Banana), strengthening consumer AI features that can drive engagement and future monetization. Google will let users connect their photos to the Gemini chatbot and Nano Banana
• Neutral Sentiment: Ongoing bullish analyst/press coverage and fund positioning (long‑term AI/cloud thesis) underpin conviction but much of that upside may already be priced in. Why Alphabet (GOOGL) is a Top Growth Stock for the Long-Term
• Neutral Sentiment: Speculative machine‑learning price forecasts and analyst hype could amplify short‑term moves but are noisy indicators rather than fundamentals. Machine learning algorithm predicts Google stock price on April 30, 2026
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports that Google is discussing deploying Gemini in classified Pentagon settings signal potential new revenue streams but introduce procurement and clearance complexities. Google, Pentagon discuss classified AI deal, the Information reports
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: Director John Hennessy sold 1,050 shares recently — a small disclosed sale but one that can be picked up by momentum traders as a cautionary signal. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director John Hennessy Sells 1,050 Shares
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk in Europe: the EU’s DMA guidance could force Google to share search and AI chat data with rivals, potentially weakening search advantages and ad economics in the region. Google should allow third-party search engines access to data, EU says
• Negative Sentiment: Cost/margin pressure: analysts warn that ramped 2026 capex, higher depreciation and energy expenses could compress free cash flow and margins even as AI/cloud revenue scales. Alphabet Shares Rise 7% YTD: Buy, Sell, or Hold the GOOGL Stock?

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $341.68 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $4.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.12. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $306.82 and a 200-day moving average of $302.17. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.10 and a 52-week high of $349.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total value of $2,481,078.77. Following the sale, the insider owned 51,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,293,309.12. This trade represents a 14.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total value of $10,006,425.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,060 shares in the company, valued at $505,573,853.40. This trade represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,069,794 shares of company stock worth $104,854,147. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

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.