West Branch Capital LLC Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

West Branch Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 89,799 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,572 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 5.7% of West Branch Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest position. West Branch Capital LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $21,830,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Corsicana & Co. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth $54,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 36.4% in the second quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 37.9% in the second quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, S&T Bank PA lifted its position in Alphabet by 40.2% during the second quarter. S&T Bank PA now owns 345 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GOOGL. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $306.00 target price (up from $255.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Mizuho set a $365.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 target price (up previously from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Citizens Jmp boosted their price target on Alphabet from $340.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 31st. Finally, HSBC upped their price target on Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.19.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $328.57 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $306.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $248.74. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $330.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at $2,798,832.60. The trade was a 23.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $308.19, for a total transaction of $184,914.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,206,872.04. The trade was a 13.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 225,187 shares of company stock worth $66,695,036. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI & advertising momentum: Analysts and media posit that Alphabet’s Gemini/AI-search progress and a strong advertising engine are driving a renewed rally and expectations that the company can join the $4 trillion market-cap group. Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence Stock Will Become a Member of the $4 Trillion Club in 2026
• Positive Sentiment: Market-cap milestone: Alphabet has overtaken Apple to become the world’s second-most valuable public company — a status shift that can attract index/ETF flows and underpins momentum. Google Claims Apple’s Spot on Most-Valuable-Companies List
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street upgrades: Multiple analysts have raised price targets and issued bullish notes heading into 2026, reinforcing institutional demand and supporting higher valuations. Analyst revises Google stock price target for the next 12 months
• Neutral Sentiment: Wiz acquisition pending EU decision: The EU will decide on Alphabet’s $32B Wiz buy by Feb. 10 — resolution will remove a major overhang but could bring remedies or conditions. EU antitrust regulators to decide on Google’s Wiz deal by February 10
• Neutral Sentiment: Lawsuit settlements on AI chatbots: Alphabet and Character.AI settled suits tied to minors’ harm, which reduces immediate legal uncertainty but keeps reputational and regulatory scrutiny active. Google and Character.AI to Settle Lawsuit Over Teenager’s Death
• Negative Sentiment: App-store pressure from U.S. senators: Three Democratic senators urged Apple and Google to suspend Elon Musk’s X and Grok apps after allegations that Grok-enabled image generation facilitated sexualized images of minors — this directly implicates Google’s Play Store and could invite political/regulatory attention. Grok and X should be suspended from Apple, Google app stores, Democratic senators say
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares (SEC filing). The sale is small relative to his holdings but can be viewed negatively by some market participants. Sundar Pichai stock sale filing
• Negative Sentiment: Talent poaching: Nvidia hired a senior Google marketing executive as CMO — a signal that top talent is mobile amid fierce AI competition, which could concern investors about retention. Nvidia Hires Google Veteran as Its First Chief Marketing Officer

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.