J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 9.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 147,746 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 12,892 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 0.7% of J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest holding. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $35,917,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Moment Partners LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 9.3% in the second quarter. Moment Partners LLC now owns 5,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,039,000 after purchasing an additional 504 shares during the period. Welch Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% during the second quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 64,262 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,325,000 after purchasing an additional 2,467 shares in the last quarter. Brooktree Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $352,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 13.9% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.9% during the second quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,028 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,415,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $303.33 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $320.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $277.29. The company has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.06, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.09. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $349.00. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway kept its Alphabet stake while cutting Amazon — a high-profile endorsement of Alphabet’s cloud/AI strategy that investors view as a vote of confidence. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic demand signal: India’s Adani Group plans a massive AI data-center investment with Google and others, implying future hyperscaler cloud demand in a large growth market. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product roadmap: Google I/O set for May (expectations for AI glasses and other AI-driven consumer launches) provides a visible catalyst for new product monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Operational/ESG tailwind: a long-term geothermal PPA will supply Google’s Nevada operations, supporting data-center resilience and sustainability goals. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Waymo oversight: Waymo defended its use of remote-assistance workers to Congress, which clarifies operations but leaves regulatory attention intact. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Product refresh: Google introduced the $499 Pixel 10a with AI features — positive for device ecosystem but modest near-term revenue impact versus cloud/ads. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider activity: Director John Hennessy sold 600 shares (small dollar amount relative to market cap) — noted by the market but not a material red flag. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: High-profile trimming: Terry Smith (Fundsmith) reportedly cut about half of his Alphabet position — a headline that can create short-term selling pressure or signal rotation. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/strategy risk: Analysts and coverage flag near-term pullback due to Alphabet’s elevated AI/compute CapEx and broader megacap rotation; some pieces call the stock in correction territory. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Service reliability: a recent YouTube outage (tens of thousands affected) briefly tests trust in Google’s consumer platforms and could draw short-term media attention. Read More.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $415.00 price target on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Wall Street Zen raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $375.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Wedbush increased their price target on Alphabet from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $363.10.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total transaction of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,798,832.60. The trade was a 23.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.30, for a total transaction of $10,637,250.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,211,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $723,945,705.60. This trade represents a 1.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,032,408 shares of company stock worth $94,926,707. 11.64% of the stock is currently 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.