Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. Buys 27,996 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 26.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 132,599 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 27,996 shares during the quarter. Crawford Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $32,235,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brooktree Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth $352,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 13.9% in the third quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,277,000 after buying an additional 7,180 shares during the last quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 23.6% in the third quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,401,000 after acquiring an additional 4,241 shares in the last quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the second quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,028 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,415,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Centerpoint Advisory Group increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 21.0% during the second quarter. Centerpoint Advisory Group now owns 2,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $424,000 after acquiring an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $360.00 price target (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Pivotal Research raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price objective (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, UBS Group set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $367.18.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $302.28 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $319.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $290.39. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $349.00. The stock has a market cap of $3.66 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.77%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total value of $284,590.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares in the company, valued at $2,955,564. This represents a 8.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total transaction of $9,859,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,674,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $508,028,012.80. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 2,076,615 shares of company stock worth $107,809,111 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Major competitor Meta has delayed a next‑generation AI release and reportedly discussed temporarily licensing Google’s Gemini model, which could help Alphabet expand usage/licensing of its AI stack and win incremental share. Meta delays release; may license Gemini
• Positive Sentiment: Needham & Company reaffirmed a “buy” on GOOGL and set a $400 price target (~32% upside from current levels), which can support investor confidence and buying interest. Needham reiterates buy
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple reports highlight Meta falling behind on large AI models (and considering licensing Google tech), reinforcing the view that Google could capture market share in foundational models and services. Meta falling behind — Yahoo
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks highlighted Alphabet’s earnings growth and price strength as reasons to watch GOOGL, supporting a constructive fundamental view after recent results. Zacks: earnings growth & price strength
• Neutral Sentiment: Google, Amazon and Meta pushing their own AI chips signals a structural shift in AI infrastructure — a long‑term positive if Google’s stack wins, but it intensifies competition with incumbents like NVIDIA and may pressure margins/capex. AI chips competition — Yahoo
• Neutral Sentiment: Google sold a partial stake in its GFiber unit and partnered to form a new independent fiber provider; this reduces direct capital burden but also trims ownership of the broadband growth asset. GFiber stake sale — CNBC
• Neutral Sentiment: Brand/PR note: Google named its London HQ “Platform 37” referencing DeepMind/AlphaGo success — modestly positive for culture/AI branding but not material to near‑term financials. Platform 37 naming — Reuters
• Negative Sentiment: UK regulator and wider regulatory scrutiny on tech safety and child protection remain overhangs for Big Tech, including Alphabet, since new rules or enforcement could increase compliance costs or constrain certain services. UK regulator warning — Sky

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.