Wilkerson Advisory Group LLC Raises Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Wilkerson Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 190.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,833 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,857 shares during the quarter. Wilkerson Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $815,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after buying an additional 12,531,695 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after buying an additional 4,008,374 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,625,595,000 after buying an additional 2,666,676 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,534,239,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 69,108,183 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $21,630,861,000 after acquiring an additional 3,218,852 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley set a $400.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Freedom Capital raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $393.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $419.86.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total transaction of $149,606.80. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.39, for a total value of $27,337.98. Following the sale, the director owned 18,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,305,738.46. This represents a 0.43% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 600,547 shares of company stock valued at $16,255,540 over the last three months. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 6.7%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $356.13 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $187.82 and a 1 year high of $408.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.64. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $357.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $339.30. The company has a market capitalization of $4.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.89, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 4.42%.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) are increasingly viewed as credible alternatives to Nvidia chips. That could reduce Google’s dependence on external suppliers and create a potential external chip-revenue opportunity. Alphabet and Amazon custom AI chips
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary highlights Alphabet’s record quarter, strong Google Cloud growth, Gemini adoption and enterprise AI demand. Analysts and value-focused investors continue to view GOOGL as comparatively inexpensive among large technology and AI companies. Alphabet AI investment and valuation
• Positive Sentiment: Google is reportedly supporting a $15 billion Anthropic data-center project with chips and financial guarantees, while Oracle is expanding its partnership to bring Gemini models to enterprise applications. These initiatives could drive Google Cloud demand and strengthen Alphabet’s AI ecosystem. Anthropic data center backed by Google
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s reported quarterly earnings and revenue beat consensus estimates by wide margins, supporting the fundamental case, although investors remain focused on whether AI growth will translate into sufficient cash returns.
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet withdrew its Google Earth AI image-generation feature only one day after launch following criticism that fabricated imagery could spread misinformation. The quick reversal limits immediate product risk but raises questions about AI governance and rollout discipline. Google Earth AI feature withdrawn
• Negative Sentiment: The AI buildout is becoming increasingly expensive. Alphabet is targeting up to $205 billion in 2026 capital expenditures, while rising memory and infrastructure costs are pressuring cash flow and increasing future depreciation. AI buildout costs and cash flow
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider sales were small relative to the executives’ remaining holdings, but they provide a modest sentiment headwind. Separately, investor-law-firm investigations could create additional legal and reputational overhang. Alphabet director stock sale

Alphabet Company 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.