TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. Grows Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 11.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 666,489 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 68,729 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.1% of TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $163,332,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth $31,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $53,000. Corsicana & Co. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $54,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 36.4% during the second quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $63,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. Pivotal Research increased their price target on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. DZ Bank reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Wolfe Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $361.64.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.4%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $310.96 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $321.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $273.37. The company has a market cap of $3.75 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.09. 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 twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $335.18, for a total transaction of $10,893,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,179,372 shares in the company, valued at $730,481,906.96. The trade was a 1.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 933 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.55, for a total value of $314,001.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,916 shares in the company, valued at $3,337,229.80. This trade represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 2,067,086 shares of company stock worth $105,184,255 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple firms raised price targets and maintained buy ratings (Arete to $405, New Street to $380, President Capital to $375, Daiwa to $380), which supports upside expectations from analysts. Arete Research price target New Street Research price target
• Positive Sentiment: EU antitrust regulators gave unconditional approval for Google’s $32B Wiz cybersecurity acquisition, removing a major regulatory overhang on the deal. Reuters: Wiz approval
• Positive Sentiment: Google is testing new shopping ad formats inside Search AI mode and Gemini, which could expand high-margin ad inventory and diversify monetization. PYMNTS: Shopping feature
• Positive Sentiment: Google participated in a large funding round for humanoid robotics startup Apptronik, signaling continued strategic investment in robotics/AI ecosystems. Reuters: Apptronik funding
• Neutral Sentiment: JPMorgan reiterated a Buy and other outlets (Zacks, CNBC coverage) continue to highlight Alphabet as a structural AI/cloud beneficiary — supporting longer-term conviction even as near-term volatility persists. JPMorgan reiteration
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet significantly increased bond issuance (initial $20B, later reports of >$30B) and is pursuing very long-dated debt (reports of 100‑year paper) to fund massive AI infrastructure and acquisitions — investors worry this signals heavy near-term cash burn and margin pressure from capex. Reuters: $20B bonds WSJ: 100-year bond
• Negative Sentiment: High-profile criticism and skepticism surfaced (e.g., Michael Burry commentary, media pieces suggesting 100‑year bonds reflect risk), amplifying investor concern about the financing move. Finbold: Burry comment
• Negative Sentiment: Privacy/regulatory headlines: report that Google handed personal and financial data of a student-journalist to ICE, plus an EU publishers’ complaint over AI Overviews, raise legal/regulatory risk that could pressure reputational and compliance costs. TechCrunch: data to ICE Reuters: publishers complaint

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.