Howard Financial Services LTD. Has $3.39 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Howard Financial Services LTD. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 21.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,843 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,917 shares during the period. Howard Financial Services LTD.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,394,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Heritage Family Offices LLP raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 92.1% during the fourth quarter. Heritage Family Offices LLP now owns 1,719 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $538,000 after acquiring an additional 824 shares in the last quarter. ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 20,339 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,366,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Pensionfund Sabic purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $5,540,000. Lifelong Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Lifelong Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,728 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $541,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Finally, David J Yvars Group increased its position in Alphabet by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. David J Yvars Group now owns 5,370 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,681,000 after purchasing an additional 319 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades and price-target raises reinforce bullish medium-term views — Wells Fargo raised its price target and kept an Overweight rating, and Needham reaffirmed its Buy with a $400 target; MarketBeat and other outlets note heavy analyst upgrading of GOOGL. These moves support upside expectations despite short-term weakness. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI innovation (TurboQuant / Gemini traction) is being framed as a competitive advantage — the company’s new compression research and Gemini adoption could lower AI operating costs and drive product differentiation, strengthening long-term revenue prospects. This is part of why some analysts lifted estimates and price targets. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Fundamentals remain solid: recent earnings beat, robust cloud growth and advertising resilience provide a valuation anchor and a reason many institutions view pullbacks as buying opportunities. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Technical correction — the stock has moved below $300 and broken key short-term support, which can amplify volatility even if the longer-term trend stays intact; investors should watch $280–$260 support zones. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Executive departure in India: Google’s top India counsel resigned amid ongoing regulatory challenges in a key market, a factor to monitor for regional regulatory execution but not an immediate earnings driver. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Landmark jury verdicts finding YouTube/Google liable in social-media addiction cases have created legal overhang and the possibility of broader litigation or regulatory exposure — courts and commentators compare potential fallout to past “Big Tobacco”-style settlements, increasing perceived legal risk for Alphabet. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: New lawsuits allege Google’s search/AI features disclosed personal information of Jeffrey Epstein victims; such privacy/AI-related claims add another legal/regulatory headline that can pressure sentiment and increase potential litigation costs or product changes. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Broader tech selloff — geopolitical war worries and landmark Meta legal losses have sparked rotation out of large-cap tech this week, amplifying Alphabet’s decline despite company-specific strengths. Market risk sentiment is a near-term headwind. Read More.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Truist Financial set a $385.00 price target on Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Wedbush increased their price objective on Alphabet from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. New Street Research raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, UBS Group set a $348.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.06.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $274.34 on Monday. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average is $313.07 and its 200-day moving average is $295.40. The company has a market cap of $3.32 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were issued 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 dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 7.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 transaction, the director owned 18,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,580,469.82. The trade was a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. The trade was a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 2,110,165 shares of company stock valued at $118,134,117 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.