Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Bought by Portside Wealth Group LLC

Key Points

• Portside Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 5.0% in Q4, adding 2,208 shares to hold 46,569 shares worth about $14.58 million, or roughly 2.0% of the firm's portfolio (its 7th largest position).
• Wall Street sentiment is broadly positive with several price‑target upgrades and product/cloud/AI catalysts (NiSource power deal, Pentagon talks on Gemini, new AI photo features) ahead of earnings, but a proposed EU DMA requirement to share search/chatbot data represents a significant regulatory overhang.

Portside Wealth Group LLC lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 5.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 46,569 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 2,208 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 2.0% of Portside Wealth Group LLC's holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. Portside Wealth Group LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $14,576,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Members Trust Co grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 6,434 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,014,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Lifelong Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Lifelong Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,728 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $541,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. White Wing Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. White Wing Wealth Management now owns 1,155 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $362,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 11,799 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,693,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MRA Advisory Group grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. MRA Advisory Group now owns 1,310 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $410,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: NiSource signed a long‑term power supply agreement with an Alphabet unit to support a large Indiana data center, reducing energy‑supply risk and supporting capacity expansion on which cloud/AI revenue depends. NiSource signs long-term power deal with Alphabet, expands Amazon agreement
• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Google is negotiating a deal to allow the Pentagon to deploy its Gemini models in classified settings — a potential high‑value government customer and proof point for Gemini’s enterprise/security positioning. Google, Pentagon discuss classified AI deal, the Information reports
• Positive Sentiment: Google expanded consumer AI features: users can now link personal photos to Gemini and Nano Banana for personalized image generation — an engagement and monetization positive for search/assistant and image services. Google will let users connect their photos to the Gemini chatbot and Nano Banana
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street momentum: Citi and Phillip Securities raised price targets (Citi to $405; Phillip to $395) and several bullish analyst notes were published ahead of Q1 results, which can support near‑term buying interest. Wall Street sets Google stock price target for the next twelve months Phillip Securities adjusts price target on Alphabet
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst commentary (Zacks) highlights Alphabet’s strong earnings‑surprise history and suggests conditions are favorable for another upside surprise in the next report — supportive for investor sentiment ahead of earnings. Will Alphabet (GOOG) Beat Estimates Again in Its Next Earnings Report?
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry note: reports about Anthropic exploring custom chips point to broader AI infrastructure shifts that could reshape supplier dynamics (Broadcom, Nvidia) but have indirect implications for Alphabet’s cost/partner ecosystem. Why Anthropic's Custom Chip Plans Could Benefit Broadcom (GOOGL)
• Neutral Sentiment: Google reported blocking a record number of bad ads while suspending fewer advertisers, raising platform‑quality and moderation questions but not an immediate revenue threat. Google is now targeting bad ads over bad actors
• Negative Sentiment: The European Commission told Google it must give rival search engines access to wide ranges of search and chatbot data under DMA compliance proposals — a major regulatory overhang that could affect search advantages, ad targeting data and competitive moat. Google should allow third-party search engines access to data, EU says
• Negative Sentiment: Stifel Nicolaus reduced expectations for Alphabet’s stock price, adding a modest negative analyst view amid mixed signals; this may add some selling pressure for momentum traders. Stifel Nicolaus Has Lowered Expectations for Alphabet NASDAQ: GOOGL Stock Price

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the subject of several research reports. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up from $365.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Phillip Securities lifted their target price on Alphabet from $340.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $279.00 to $357.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $375.00 price objective (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $367.62.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.3%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $336.02 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.10 and a 12-month high of $349.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.06 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $306.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $300.68.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) 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 analysts' consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total transaction of $33,934.88. Following the sale, the director directly owned 18,418 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,580,469.82. The trade was a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total value of $318,580.50. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,631 shares in the company, valued at $1,405,091.71. This trade represents a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,068,744 shares of company stock worth $104,505,914. 11.64% of the stock is 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.

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