Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 25,906 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,851 shares during the period. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,298,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings 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 valued at $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.6% in the 2nd quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 4,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $862,000 after buying an additional 431 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.6% in the 2nd quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $685,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 48,805 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Big, sustained AI and cloud investment supports long-term growth thesis: reports show Alphabet is among the large tech players pouring billions into AI infrastructure and chips, reinforcing expectations for continued revenue/market-share gains in AI services. Microsoft and Alphabet Spend Billions On AI: A Closer Look
• Positive Sentiment: Product and infrastructure wins — Google Cloud strong growth and strategic partnerships (including Rakuten integration and recent mapping/export approvals and clean-energy data centers) underline secular revenue drivers and operational resilience. Alphabet (GOOGL) Valuation Check As AI Infrastructure Push And Capex Plans Draw Investor Focus
• Neutral Sentiment: Heightened investor attention and analyst commentary keep stock in focus — multiple pieces note strong interest and differing views on valuation vs. capex plans; this raises volatility but not a clear directional signal. Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) is Attracting Investor Attention: Here is What You Should Know
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data in feeds is showing anomalous/zero values and should be treated as noise rather than a market-moving signal for now.
• Negative Sentiment: Geopolitical risk hit sentiment today: tech firms temporarily closed Middle East offices and markets sold off amid rising U.S.-Iran tensions, prompting defensive positioning that weighs on high-beta, growth names like Alphabet. Nvidia, Amazon temporarily close Dubai offices, Google employees stranded amid U.S.-Iran war
• Negative Sentiment: Employee and policy scrutiny over military use of AI (letters and internal pressure) could complicate government contracts and public perception as Google negotiates over Gemini-related work with the Pentagon. Google employees call for military limits on AI amid Iran strikes, Anthropic fallout
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/safety risk from Waymo: the NTSB is probing incidents of Waymo vehicles illegally passing stopped school buses — a development that raises liability, regulatory scrutiny and reputational risk for Alphabet’s autonomous-vehicle ambitions. NTSB says Waymo robotaxis illegally passed stopped school buses in new incidents

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.21, for a total transaction of $10,439,325.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,244,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $720,914,730.12. This trade represents a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 8,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,798,832.60. The trade was a 23.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,078,926 shares of company stock valued at $108,426,720. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on GOOGL. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group set a $348.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. HSBC increased their price target on Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Daiwa Securities Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $333.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, Wedbush increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $366.57.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.0%

GOOGL stock opened at $303.58 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 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 firm’s 50-day moving average is $320.71 and its 200 day moving average is $284.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 2.01.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.77%.

Alphabet 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.