Cwm LLC Acquires 14,353 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Cwm LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,039,950 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 14,353 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 0.9% of Cwm LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Cwm LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $325,504,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY raised its position in Alphabet by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $685,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 11.2% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $85,557,000 after purchasing an additional 48,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank raised its position in Alphabet by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,495,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Blowout Q1 — EPS and revenue materially beat expectations, with Google Cloud reporting very strong growth that convinced investors the company’s AI investments are driving near‑term monetization. GOOGL Q1 Earnings Beat (Zacks)
• Positive Sentiment: Cloud / AI momentum — Google Cloud grew ~63% y/y, AI product revenues surged and management cited a multi‑hundred‑billion backlog, supporting upside to future revenue and margins. Cloud Growth & Backlog (Zacks)
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades — A wave of price‑target increases and buy/overweight reiterations (Goldman, JPMorgan, Canaccord, Citi, etc.) followed the quarter, adding institutional endorsement and likely supporting further buying. Price Target Raises (MarketScreener)
• Positive Sentiment: Shareholder return signal — Alphabet announced a modestly higher quarterly dividend (up from $0.21 to $0.22), marking a small but visible move toward returning cash to investors.
• Neutral Sentiment: Product/monetization rollouts — Gemini is being integrated into millions of cars (upgrade from Assistant), and Waymo continues geographic expansion and commercial rides — both expand long‑term monetization pathways but have longer ROI timelines. Gemini in Cars (TechCrunch) Waymo Growth (Business Insider)
• Neutral Sentiment: Unusual options activity — Heavy call buying today suggests bullish positioning or hedged directional bets; this amplifies intraday volatility but not fundamentals.
• Negative Sentiment: CapEx concerns — Multiple write‑ups flagged rapid, ongoing AI/data‑center spend; some investors worry heavy capex could pressure near‑term margins despite revenue gains. CapEx Concerns (Seeking Alpha)
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and governance risks — European scrutiny (Italy) and shareholder pushes for cloud/AI safeguards create political/regulatory overhang that could affect product deployments or compliance costs. Italy Asks EU Probe (Reuters)

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total transaction of $14,341,182.30. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total value of $318,580.50. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,631 shares in the company, valued at $1,405,091.71. This represents a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 191,884 shares of company stock valued at $59,121,365. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. New Street Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Wedbush lifted their target price on Alphabet from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Alphabet from $330.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Loop Capital lifted their target price on Alphabet from $320.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $390.65.

Alphabet Trading Up 10.0%

GOOGL opened at $384.80 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.65 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.35, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $147.84 and a 12 month high of $385.84. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $313.72 and a 200-day moving average price of $307.81.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a return on equity of 41.25% and a net margin of 37.92%.The company had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 11.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

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.