Alphabet Inc. $GOOG is Atwood & Palmer Inc.'s 2nd Largest Position

Key Points

• Atwood & Palmer Inc. trimmed its Alphabet stake by 1.6% to 243,574 shares, leaving Alphabet as its 2nd largest holding at 4.3% of the portfolio, valued at about $76.43 million.
• Alphabet reported a record Q1 (EPS $5.11 vs. ~$2.68 consensus; $109.9B revenue) with Google Cloud up ~63% to ~$20B, prompting analyst target raises, but management flagged very large AI spending (about $185–190B capex) that could pressure free cash flow and elevate execution/regulatory risks while the company also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22.

Atwood & Palmer Inc. cut its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 243,574 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 3,971 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 4.3% of Atwood & Palmer Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Atwood & Palmer Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $76,434,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tradewinds LLC. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2,134.8% during the 3rd quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 45,098 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,984,000 after acquiring an additional 43,080 shares in the last quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 8.5% during the 4th quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 29,896 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $9,381,000 after purchasing an additional 2,341 shares during the last quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 31.3% in the 3rd quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 354,529 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $86,345,000 after acquiring an additional 84,553 shares during the last quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 221,391 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $53,920,000 after acquiring an additional 2,009 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 157,143 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $38,272,000 after acquiring an additional 3,444 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total transaction of $9,877,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,818,524 shares in the company, valued at approximately $856,605,814.08. This trade represents a 1.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total transaction of $318,580.50. Following the sale, the director owned 4,631 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,405,091.71. The trade was a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 191,053 shares of company stock valued at $58,845,206. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. KeyCorp set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $362.73.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Record Q1 fundamentals — Alphabet beat estimates (EPS $5.11 vs. $2.64 consensus) and reported $109.9B revenue; Google Cloud grew ~63% to ~ $20B with a very large backlog, which underpins multi-year revenue visibility and explains the rally. Alphabet Q1 2026 Earnings Call Highlights
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street is upgrading targets — multiple firms (JPMorgan, TD Cowen, Scotiabank, Raymond James, Piper Sandler and others) raised price targets and reiterated buys after the quarter, signaling analyst conviction that AI/cloud growth justifies higher valuation. Coverage: Recent price-target raises
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic wins and ecosystem advantages — articles argue Alphabet’s “compute” advantage (TPUs, datacenter scale, full‑stack Gemini integrations) gives it a structural edge versus rivals and supports both ad/product monetization and enterprise AI demand. Compute is destiny. Google just proved it.
• Neutral Sentiment: Government and enterprise demand — the U.S. Pentagon and other large customers have agreements with leading AI providers including Google, validating long-term cloud/AI revenue channels but timing and contract sizes vary. This supports durable demand but is not an immediate revenue kicker. Pentagon reaches agreements with leading AI companies
• Negative Sentiment: CapEx intensity and cash flow tradeoff — management signaled very large AI-related capital spending (2026 capex ~ $185–190B and “significantly higher” expected in 2027). That funds growth but will pressure free cash flow and raises execution/ROI scrutiny. Alphabet ups 2026 capex to as much as $190 billion
• Negative Sentiment: Rising cost concerns and regulatory risks — commentary highlights the growing capital and operating cost of AI (potential margin/cashflow headwinds), and regulators in Europe are probing Google’s AI/search features — both are watch‑items for investors. Google Stock Growth Collides With The Rising Cost Of AI Italy asks EU to investigate Google AI search tools

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG opened at $383.22 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $4.64 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.23, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.25. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $149.49 and a 52-week high of $383.39. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $312.44 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $308.65.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $2.43. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.96 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The company's revenue was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.81 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 12.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's payout ratio is 6.41%.

Alphabet Profile

Alphabet Inc NASDAQ: GOOG is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as "Other Bets." Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company's history.

Alphabet's core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company's ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding GOOG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.