Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stock Position Boosted by Atwood & Palmer Inc.

Key Points

• Atwood & Palmer increased its Alphabet stake by 12.9% in the third quarter, adding 3,151 shares for a total position of 27,607 shares valued at approximately $9.5 million. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of Alphabet.
• Alphabet continues expanding beyond search, with new agentic Gemini tools for businesses, a $5 billion financing deal for Waymo, and reported funding discussions valuing Isomorphic Labs at $40 billion–$50 billion.
• Analyst sentiment remains positive, with the stock holding a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $425.72. However, the company faces legal claims, environmental delays affecting Finnish data centers, and questions about whether heavy AI spending will generate sufficient returns.

Atwood & Palmer Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 12.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 27,607 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,151 shares during the quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $9,499,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. EMC Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Core Capital Management & Research inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth $41,000. Premier Financial Group purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $52,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google introduced an agentic version of Gemini for business users. The unified agent is designed to perform tasks across workplace applications, strengthening Alphabet’s position in enterprise AI and intensifying competition with Microsoft and OpenAI. Google brings agentic AI to Gemini
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s Waymo autonomous-vehicle unit secured a $5 billion loan from Blackstone, PIMCO and Sixth Street, providing financing for robotaxi expansion without requiring Alphabet to fund the entire rollout directly. Waymo secures $5 billion loan
• Positive Sentiment: Isomorphic Labs, Alphabet’s AI drug-discovery subsidiary, is reportedly discussing a funding round valuing the business between $40 billion and $50 billion. A successful financing could highlight the value of Alphabet’s AI portfolio beyond search and advertising. Isomorphic Labs funding talks
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains strongly bullish: Needham reaffirmed a Buy rating with a $450 price target, while other reports cited broad upside expectations based on Alphabet’s earnings power, cloud growth and AI opportunities.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet and Unity expanded their AI gaming partnership, including tools that let users create games through natural-language prompts. The initiative could broaden Google Play engagement, although monetization and adoption remain unproven. Google and Unity gaming partnership
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms publicized an existing securities class action covering investors who purchased Alphabet securities from May 19 through July 16, 2026. The complaints allege that management failed to disclose issues related to the expected Gemini 3.5 Pro launch and training results. These are allegations, not findings of liability, but the repeated alerts add legal and reputational overhang. Alphabet securities class action announcement
• Negative Sentiment: Google was ordered to halt work on two Finnish data centers pending environmental-impact assessments, potentially delaying infrastructure expansion. Commentary also questioned whether Alphabet is converting heavy AI capital spending into sufficient revenue and criticized its progress in AI coding.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.6%

Alphabet stock opened at $348.29 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $235.84 and a 1 year high of $408.61. The firm's 50-day moving average is $345.99 and its 200-day moving average is $349.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a current ratio of 2.72. The company has a market cap of $4.26 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.49, a PEG ratio of 1.01 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 analysts' consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%.The company had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's payout ratio is 4.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Freedom Capital upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Pivotal Research reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $475.00 target price (up from $470.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Zacks Research lowered Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $450.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Benchmark restated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $425.72.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 83 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.45, for a total transaction of $28,257.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 19,076 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,494,424.20. This represents a 0.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total value of $149,606.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,386 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,125,015.20. This trade represents a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 441,399 shares of company stock worth $8,677,053. Insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is a technology and internet services company best known as the parent company of Google. Its primary business, Google Services, includes online search, digital advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play, and a range of hardware and subscription products.

Alphabet also operates Google Cloud, which provides infrastructure, data analytics, cybersecurity, productivity software, and artificial intelligence services to businesses, governments, and other organizations.

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