Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stake Lifted by Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC

Key Points

• Woodmont Investment Counsel raised its stake in Alphabet by 4.0% in Q4 to 49,503 shares (about $15.49 million), making Alphabet roughly 1.0% of the fund's holdings and its 28th largest position.
• Large institutions including State Street, Capital World Investors, Capital Research and Invesco have materially increased their Alphabet positions, but insiders have been net sellers recently (2,069,794 shares sold over the last 90 days), reflecting mixed positioning.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive—MarketBeat shows a "Moderate Buy" consensus with a $368.25 target and several upgrades (targets up to $415), supported by AI/product momentum and operational wins, though EU regulatory risk and rising capex/energy costs could pressure margins.

Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 49,503 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 1,902 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.0% of Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC's holdings, making the stock its 28th largest position. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,494,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $40,524,841,000 after acquiring an additional 4,008,374 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Alphabet by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $12,910,542,000 after acquiring an additional 11,605,785 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Alphabet by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 50,732,476 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $12,333,076,000 after acquiring an additional 6,874,381 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 45,186,112 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,984,744,000 after acquiring an additional 1,034,292 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 39,250,829 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $9,541,877,000 after acquiring an additional 392,547 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 617 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total value of $178,701.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total value of $33,934.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,418 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,580,469.82. This trade represents a 0.60% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,069,794 shares of company stock valued at $104,854,147. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group set a $348.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $375.00 price target (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Tigress Financial set a $415.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Phillip Securities boosted their price target on Alphabet from $340.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $368.25.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $341.68 on Monday. 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 firm has a market cap of $4.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $306.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $302.17. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.10 and a fifty-two week high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 7.77%.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Report that Google is in talks with Marvell to develop two new AI inference chips — investors see this as a move to diversify/customize AI hardware away from dominant suppliers, boosting confidence in Google’s infrastructure strategy and potential margin leverage. Marvell shares gain on report of deal talks with Google to develop two AI chips
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst target upgrades and an upgrade reported this week have raised upside expectations (one published target moved to $400), which can attract momentum buyers and support higher valuations. Alphabet NASDAQ: GOOGL Price Target Raised to $400.00
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet secured a long‑term power agreement for a large Indiana data center, reducing energy‑supply uncertainty for cloud/data‑center expansion — a favorable operational development for Google Cloud growth. NiSource signs long-term power deal with Alphabet, expands Amazon agreement
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum: Google is rolling photo integration into Gemini (and Nano Banana), strengthening consumer AI features that can drive engagement and future monetization. Google will let users connect their photos to the Gemini chatbot and Nano Banana
• Neutral Sentiment: Ongoing bullish analyst/press coverage and fund positioning (long‑term AI/cloud thesis) underpin conviction but much of that upside may already be priced in. Why Alphabet (GOOGL) is a Top Growth Stock for the Long-Term
• Neutral Sentiment: Speculative machine‑learning price forecasts and analyst hype could amplify short‑term moves but are noisy indicators rather than fundamentals. Machine learning algorithm predicts Google stock price on April 30, 2026
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports that Google is discussing deploying Gemini in classified Pentagon settings signal potential new revenue streams but introduce procurement and clearance complexities. Google, Pentagon discuss classified AI deal, the Information reports
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: Director John Hennessy sold 1,050 shares recently — a small disclosed sale but one that can be picked up by momentum traders as a cautionary signal. Alphabet NASDAQ: GOOGL Director John Hennessy Sells 1,050 Shares
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk in Europe: the EU’s DMA guidance could force Google to share search and AI chat data with rivals, potentially weakening search advantages and ad economics in the region. Google should allow third-party search engines access to data, EU says
• Negative Sentiment: Cost/margin pressure: analysts warn that ramped 2026 capex, higher depreciation and energy expenses could compress free cash flow and margins even as AI/cloud revenue scales. Alphabet Shares Rise 7% YTD: Buy, Sell, or Hold the GOOGL Stock?

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.

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