Western Financial Corp CA Buys 7,358 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Western Financial Corp CA boosted its stake in Alphabet by 549.1% in Q4, purchasing 7,358 shares to hold 8,698 shares valued at about $2.72 million, making Alphabet its 17th-largest holding (~1.1% of assets).
• Wall Street sentiment is constructive: multiple firms raised price targets and Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $367.62.
• Insiders have been net sellers recently — including CEO Sundar Pichai (32,500 shares) — with insiders offloading 2,068,744 shares valued at roughly $104.5 million in the past 90 days.

Western Financial Corp CA lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 549.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,698 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 7,358 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 1.1% of Western Financial Corp CA's holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Western Financial Corp CA's holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,723,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Members Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the fourth 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 during the period. Lifelong Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Lifelong Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,728 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $541,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. White Wing Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. White Wing Wealth Management now owns 1,155 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $362,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 11,799 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,693,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MRA Advisory Group raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. MRA Advisory Group now owns 1,310 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $410,000 after buying an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Pivotal Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Arete Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. China Renaissance increased their price objective on Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Roth Mkm increased their price objective on Alphabet from $365.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group set a $348.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $367.62.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrade lifted sentiment — a recent analyst upgrade was cited as driving a ~1.3% bump in the stock, signaling near-term investor optimism. Alphabet Stock Price Up 1.3% on Analyst Upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Price-target and buy-rating momentum: Phillip Securities raised its target to $395 (maintaining a positive rating), and Stifel Nicolaus issued a buy — both support upside expectations. Phillip Securities adjusts price target on Alphabet to $395 Alphabet receives buy from Stifel Nicolaus
• Positive Sentiment: Data-center power deal: NiSource signed a long-term energy supply agreement to support a large Google data center in Indiana — improves operational continuity and long-term energy planning for cloud infrastructure. NiSource signs long-term power deal with Alphabet
• Positive Sentiment: New product capabilities bolster AI/services growth: Google announced personalized image generation tied to Gemini/Nano Banana, which can increase user engagement and product differentiation in consumer AI. Google will let users connect their photos to the Gemini chatbot
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings/estimates outlook remains constructive — analysts and services like Zacks highlight Alphabet’s strong surprise history and odds of another beat, supporting positive expectations but not a near-term certainty. Will Alphabet beat estimates again?
• Neutral Sentiment: AI/defense discussions: Reports say Google is in talks to let the U.S. Department of Defense deploy Gemini in classified settings — potential new contract avenue, but details and timing are uncertain. Google, Pentagon discuss classified AI deal
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry context and partner moves: Coverage highlighting Alphabet as a key cloud/AI player (Magnificent Seven rankings, AI/quantum thematic pieces) and partner expansions (e.g., GitLab) support the long-term growth narrative but are incremental. I Ranked the "Magnificent Seven" Stocks GitLab expands partnership with Google
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk: The European Commission outlined measures requiring Google to share search and related AI chat data with rivals under the Digital Markets Act — this is a significant regulatory headwind that could weaken search data exclusivity and ad targeting advantages in Europe. EU says Google should allow third-party search engines access to data

Alphabet Trading Down 0.3%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $336.02 on Friday. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $306.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $300.68. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.10 and a twelve month high of $349.00. 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 company has a market capitalization of $4.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.08, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.12.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.77%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other 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 value of $9,877,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,818,524 shares in the company, valued at approximately $856,605,814.08. The trade was a 1.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,068,744 shares of company stock valued at $104,505,914. 11.64% of the stock is currently 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.