Violich Capital Management Inc. Grows Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Violich Capital Management increased its Alphabet stake by 1.7% in Q4, buying 5,500 more shares and bringing its total to 325,628 shares valued at about $101.9 million. Alphabet is now the fund’s second-largest holding.
• Alphabet continues to draw strong institutional and analyst support, with hedge funds broadly owning about 40% of the stock and Wall Street maintaining a consensus Moderate Buy rating. Several firms recently raised price targets, pushing the average target to $412.65.
• The company is also highlighted by AI-driven growth initiatives and solid financial performance, including new AI products, ad formats, and a planned $15 billion AI data hub. Its latest earnings beat expectations, and Alphabet raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share.

Violich Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 325,628 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 5,500 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 11.4% of Violich Capital Management Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Violich Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $101,922,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $416,217,000. Sovran Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,401,000 after acquiring an additional 4,241 shares during the period. Wright Investors Service Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 21.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 50,064 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $12,171,000 after purchasing an additional 8,746 shares during the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 72,608 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $17,652,000 after purchasing an additional 3,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,666,577 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $405,131,000 after purchasing an additional 60,831 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google I/O 2026 showcased Alphabet’s expanding AI strategy, including new Gemini-powered models, upgraded search features, AI glasses, and ad products designed to monetize conversational search. This supports the case that Alphabet can defend and grow its core search business while creating new revenue streams. Google Flexes Its AI Muscles
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet also unveiled a more ambitious AI lineup, which suggests it is trying to stay ahead in the AI race and deepen integration across search, cloud, and advertising. Investors may see this as a sign of stronger long-term monetization. Alphabet Just Unveiled Its Most Ambitious AI Lineup Yet
• Positive Sentiment: Google is rolling out AI-powered ad formats that could improve ad performance and increase advertiser spending, helping offset fears that AI search will hurt ad revenue. Google rolls out AI-powered ad formats at Marketing Live
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s planned $15 billion Missouri AI data hub underscores its willingness to invest heavily in infrastructure to support future AI and cloud demand, which can reinforce investor confidence in growth durability. How Google’s $15 Billion Missouri AI Data Hub Strategy Could Reshape Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Investor Narrative
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet is pushing for judicial oversight in Canada’s online safety bill, trying to limit the risk of secret orders that could weaken encryption. This is more of a legal/regulatory issue than a direct earnings catalyst, but it keeps policy pressure on the stock. Apple, Google push for judicial oversight in Canada online safety bill
• Negative Sentiment: OpenAI’s ad efforts are being viewed as a potential threat to Google’s keyword-based search advertising model, raising investor concern that AI-native competitors could chip away at Alphabet’s core search franchise over time. OpenAI is building a new kind of ad machine. Early data suggests Google should worry.
• Negative Sentiment: A report that Waymo’s robotaxi service ended a ride early and directed a passenger to Uber or Lyft could add to worries about execution risks in Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle business, though this is a smaller issue for the stock than search or AI. A Waymo car ended a ride early, then the company told the passenger to get an Uber
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that DuckDuckGo installs are rising as users reject Google’s AI search experience suggest some user pushback against the company’s search changes, which could matter if it signals broader search-share risk. DuckDuckGo installs are up 30% as users reject being ‘force-fed' Google's AI Search
• Negative Sentiment: A reported EU antitrust fine against Google would reinforce regulatory overhang and could pressure sentiment if the penalty is confirmed. EU plans to fine Google high triple-digit million euro sum as part of antitrust investigation

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. China Renaissance upped their price objective on Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Argus raised their target price on Alphabet from $365.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on Alphabet from $395.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. President Capital increased their price target on Alphabet from $375.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, DZ Bank reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, February 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $412.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 617 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total value of $178,701.71. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 226,481 shares of company stock worth $27,422,061. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.5%

GOOGL stock opened at $388.88 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.71 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.66, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.26. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $162.00 and a twelve month high of $408.61. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $341.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $323.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company 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 $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 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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