Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Acquired by World Investment Advisors

World Investment Advisors boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 9.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 274,761 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 23,107 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.4% of World Investment Advisors’ holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. World Investment Advisors’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $86,000,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $52,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised expectations — a published price target bump to $397 signals stronger bullish conviction from at least one shop, which can help support the stock. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $397.00
• Positive Sentiment: Needham reiterated a Buy rating on GOOGL, reinforcing continued analyst support for the company’s growth and AI positioning. Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC
• Positive Sentiment: TurboQuant and related compression tech may materially reduce AI memory and cloud costs — a potential structural margin advantage for Google Cloud and AI services. This is being highlighted as a reason to buy by some analysts and outlets. Alphabet Just Introduced Its Newest AI Advantage, and It’s Another Reason to Buy the Stock
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo reached scale (~500k paid robotaxi rides/week across 10 U.S. cities), showing tangible monetization potential in autonomous mobility over time. Alphabet Weighs Privacy Risks Against AI Efficiency And Waymo Scale
• Neutral Sentiment: Public stance by senior exec Jeff Dean on political issues keeps Google in the spotlight but is unlikely to move fundamentals; it is primarily a reputational/PR factor. Silicon Valley Has Stopped Talking Politics—Except for This Google Executive
• Negative Sentiment: Legal risk: a landmark social‑media addiction verdict found Google/YouTube liable in a case that could encourage follow-on litigation or regulatory scrutiny — a potential long‑term liability overhang. Meta and Google lost a major social media addiction lawsuit. Their troubles are far from over.
• Negative Sentiment: Sentiment hit from institutional moves — Ark Invest trimmed GOOGL among other AI names, which can pressure near‑term demand and sentiment for the stock. Cathie Wood Going Cold On Big Tech? Ark Sells Nvidia, AMD, Meta And Google Stock — AI Darlings Get The Dump
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive risk: Apple has poached a senior Google shopping/AI marketing exec, highlighting talent flow to rivals that could weaken product or go‑to‑market execution over time. Apple Recruits Google Shopping Exec to Lead AI Marketing

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.21, for a total value of $10,439,325.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,244,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $720,914,730.12. The trade was a 1.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total value of $35,060,852.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 2,110,165 shares of company stock valued at $118,134,117 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Tigress Financial set a $415.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. UBS Group set a $348.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.06.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $274.34 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $349.00. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The company has a market capitalization of $3.32 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $313.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $295.40.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.77%.

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.