Meridian Wealth Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Meridian Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 34.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 211,436 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 53,844 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 2.3% of Meridian Wealth Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Meridian Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $66,180,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fourth Dimension Wealth LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Fourth Dimension Wealth LLC now owns 5,395 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,689,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Prosperitas Financial LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Prosperitas Financial LLC now owns 44,914 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,058,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Rinkey Investments raised its position in Alphabet by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Rinkey Investments now owns 4,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,354,000 after acquiring an additional 305 shares in the last quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp raised its position in Alphabet by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp now owns 11,360 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,556,000 after acquiring an additional 651 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mascoma Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Mascoma Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,232 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,325,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud reported standout Q1’26 results, with revenue up 63% to $20 billion, a 32.9% margin, and a backlog that reached $462 billion, suggesting strong demand and improving profitability. GOOGL Rides on Surging Google Cloud Demand: More Upside Ahead?
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet and Blackstone announced a partnership to build 500MW of U.S. data center capacity by 2027, underscoring Alphabet’s push to monetize TPU-powered AI compute as a service. Google and Blackstone partner on TPU-powered data centre capacity
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s buy rating was reaffirmed by Barclays, adding to the bullish analyst tone around the stock. Alphabet Class A (GOOGL) Gets a Buy from Cantor Fitzgerald
• Positive Sentiment: Reuters reported that EQT partnered with Google Cloud to accelerate AI adoption across more than 300 portfolio companies, reinforcing Alphabet’s enterprise AI momentum. Private equity firm EQT partners with Google Cloud for AI rollout
• Neutral Sentiment: Waymo continued expanding its robotaxi fleet with lower-cost vehicles and new rider access, which supports Alphabet’s optionality in autonomous driving but is not an immediate earnings driver. Waymo opens Ojai robotaxis to select riders as company aims to lower cost of fleet expansion
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet is facing fresh reputational and legal pressure after U.S. prosecutors charged a Google engineer in a Polymarket insider-trading case, and an Indian court ruling raised trademark-related ad risk. Indian court ruling on Google keyword ads could reshape online advertising
• Negative Sentiment: Some commentary also suggested Alphabet could face pressure as AI rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic raise larger funding war chests, keeping competition concerns in focus. Anthropic Leapfrogs OpenAI In Valuation. But Here’s One Thing To Know.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total transaction of $412,923.00. Following the sale, the director owned 2,531 shares in the company, valued at $995,341.06. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 226,481 shares of company stock valued at $27,422,061. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.5%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $380.34 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.61 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.01, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $162.00 and a 12-month high of $408.61. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $345.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $324.91.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.41%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $460.00 price target (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $412.94.

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.