Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stake Reduced by WestEnd Advisors LLC

Key Points

• WestEnd Advisors LLC cut its Alphabet stake by 17.3% in Q4, selling 38,204 shares and ending the quarter with 183,247 shares worth about $57.36 million (≈1.3% of its portfolio; 20th-largest holding).
• Alphabet delivered a sizable Q1 beat (EPS $5.11 vs. $2.64; revenue $109.9B vs. $106.98B) and multiple brokerages raised ratings and price targets, leaving a MarketBeat average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $402.96.
• Insider selling has been notable: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares (~$9.9M) and insiders sold 191,053 shares worth ~$58.8M in the last 90 days, a datapoint investors may view as near-term negative.

WestEnd Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 17.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 183,247 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 38,204 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 1.3% of WestEnd Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. WestEnd Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $57,357,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Friedenthal Financial raised its holdings in Alphabet by 3,223.4% during the 4th quarter. Friedenthal Financial now owns 3,124 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $978,000 after buying an additional 3,030 shares during the period. Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors raised its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors now owns 3,875 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,273,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the period. Summit Financial Strategies Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Summit Financial Strategies Inc. now owns 7,248 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,269,000 after buying an additional 270 shares during the period. Traphagen Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Traphagen Investment Advisors LLC now owns 12,016 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,761,000 after buying an additional 1,004 shares during the period. Finally, Security Financial Services INC. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Security Financial Services INC. now owns 3,573 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,118,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Susquehanna restated a "positive" rating and set a $460.00 price objective (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday. HSBC boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $385.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $390.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $330.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $402.96.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple brokerages raised price targets and reaffirmed buy ratings (Citizens, New Street, China Renaissance, JPMorgan, Jefferies), signaling fresh analyst conviction and lifting demand for the stock. Analysts revise Google stock price target
• Positive Sentiment: Strong Q1 results and investor takeaways: Alphabet posted a sizable beat, highlighted accelerating Google Cloud backlog and AI-related revenue strength — catalysts that underpin near-term earnings upside and multiple re-rating. Alphabet Inc. 2026 Q1 - Results - Earnings Call Presentation
• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud growth reportedly outpaced AWS and Azure, reinforcing the monetization narrative for cloud and AI infrastructure spend — a key longer-term revenue driver. Alphabet's Google Cloud growth outpaces AWS and Azure
• Neutral Sentiment: Waymo continues to attract heavy funding (largest VC pushes into autonomous vehicles), which supports Alphabet’s long-term growth optionality but is capital-intensive and slower to monetize. Big money is betting the self-driving future belongs to a small club
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry-level dynamics: Google’s announced AI buildout is lifting demand for semiconductors and third-party suppliers (NVDA, TSM, AVGO), which is supportive for the AI ecosystem that benefits Alphabet indirectly. 3 Semiconductor Stocks Poised to Gain
• Neutral Sentiment: Supply/infrastructure risk: countries like Denmark are pausing new data-center hookups as grid constraints and local pushback rise — a potential headwind for capacity expansion plans. Denmark faces data center reckoning
• Negative Sentiment: UK DeepMind employees voted to unionize citing concerns over AI military contracts, creating reputational and potential operational headwinds that investors may view as governance risk. UK Google DeepMind employees vote to unionize
• Negative Sentiment: Technical sell signal: a trading commentator predicted a potential 45% crash based on chart patterns — a speculative call that can amplify volatility if traders act on it. Trading expert sets date when Google stock will crash
• Negative Sentiment: Insider activity: a director sold ~$38k of stock — a small amount but often flagged by markets as a near-term negative datapoint. Alphabet Director Sells Stock

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total transaction of $9,877,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,818,524 shares of the company's stock, valued at $856,605,814.08. The trade was a 1.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This trade represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 191,053 shares of company stock worth $58,845,206. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.6%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $383.25 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $147.84 and a fifty-two week high of $387.38. The stock's 50-day moving average is $313.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $308.70. The stock has a market cap of $4.64 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.26.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The company had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.98 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 12.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.71%.

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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