Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Holdings Lifted by CWA Asset Management Group LLC

Key Points

• CWA Asset Management Group increased its Alphabet stake by 6.8% in the third quarter, owning 153,248 shares valued at approximately $52.7 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 40.03% of GOOGL.
• Analyst sentiment remains positive, with Alphabet carrying an overall “Buy” rating and an average price target of $425.04; recent targets range from $410 to $445, although Zacks downgraded the stock to “Hold.”
• Alphabet’s latest results exceeded expectations, with $119.8 billion in revenue and $9.11 in EPS, while investors remain focused on AI-driven cloud and advertising growth. Rising AI infrastructure spending, potential margin pressure, legal actions, and a reported Google Cloud outage represent key risks.

CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 153,248 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 9,697 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 1.6% of CWA Asset Management Group LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. CWA Asset Management Group LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $52,729,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Titleist Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% during the third quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC now owns 34,613 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $11,909,000 after buying an additional 2,096 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 89,299 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $25,679,000 after acquiring an additional 2,269 shares in the last quarter. Elefante Mark B lifted its stake in Alphabet by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. Elefante Mark B now owns 43,733 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $15,629,000 after acquiring an additional 1,897 shares in the last quarter. Nwam LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 19.6% in the 1st quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 49,128 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $14,127,000 after acquiring an additional 8,055 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 287.4% during the 1st quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,886 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,063,000 after acquiring an additional 2,883 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOGL. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $425.00 price objective (up from $405.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $445.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $410.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Zacks Research lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Freedom Capital raised shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $425.04.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI investment story remains a potential long-term support. Analysts and investors point to rising demand for Google Cloud, internally developed TPU chips, advertising resilience, and the potential for Gemini and other AI products to drive future growth. Alphabet Investing Behind AI Demand and TPU Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Pre-earnings coverage remains constructive on Alphabet’s third-quarter outlook, citing AI adoption, cloud growth, and advertising strength. Erste Group also modestly raised its fiscal 2027 EPS forecast, while Citizens JMP maintained a “market outperform” rating despite lowering its price target. Pre-Q3 Earnings Alphabet Stock Outlook
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s quarterly preferred-stock dividend announcement is unlikely to materially affect GOOGL common shares. Investors are instead focused on operating results, capital expenditures, margins, and management’s AI spending guidance.
• Neutral Sentiment: The upcoming earnings report is the key near-term catalyst. Strong cloud and advertising metrics could help stabilize the stock, but investors may react negatively if capital spending rises faster than AI-related revenue and cash flow.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms announced or promoted securities-fraud class actions against Alphabet concerning the May 19–July 16 trading period. The complaints allege that Alphabet failed to disclose important information about Gemini 3.5 Pro’s development and launch readiness; the allegations have not been proven. Lead-plaintiff deadlines are generally December 1, with one notice citing November 30. Kaplan Fox Alphabet Class Action Notice
• Negative Sentiment: A reported Google Cloud outage in London disrupted financial and public-sector services and prompted scrutiny from UK regulators and lawmakers, raising operational, reputational, and regulatory concerns. Alphabet Cloud Outage and Regulation
• Negative Sentiment: The broader AI sell-off is weighing on Alphabet as investors question whether enormous data-center, chip, power, and compute expenditures will generate adequate returns. Heavy spending is also contributing to concerns about future margins and valuation.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $320.21 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.64. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $342.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $352.81. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $255.32 and a one year high of $408.61. The firm has a market cap of $3.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.08, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.21.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $117.07 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.60 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $3,832,277.26. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total value of $149,606.80. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 27,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,125,015.20. The trade was a 1.61% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 315,765 shares of company stock worth $6,297,980. Insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is a technology holding company best known for its Google subsidiary. Google operates a global internet-services business centered on online search, digital advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play, and a broad range of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools.

Google Cloud provides infrastructure, data analytics, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and enterprise software services to businesses, governments, and other organizations. Alphabet also develops consumer hardware, including Pixel devices and products for connected homes, while investing in emerging businesses through its “Other Bets” segment, including autonomous transportation and life sciences initiatives.

Alphabet was established in 2015 as part of a corporate restructuring that made Google a subsidiary and provided a separate structure for its expanding portfolio of businesses.

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