Westmount Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Free Report) by 15.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 28,644 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,821 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 2.2% of Westmount Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Westmount Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $8,966,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after buying an additional 4,008,374 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $21,944,208,000. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after buying an additional 11,605,785 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 50,732,476 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,333,076,000 after buying an additional 6,874,381 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 45,186,112 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,984,744,000 after buying an additional 1,034,292 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Alphabet News Roundup
Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Long‑term Broadcom partnership secures future custom AI chips and networking for Google’s next‑gen AI racks, reducing execution risk for Google’s TPU roadmap and data‑center scale — a bullish infrastructure outcome for Google Cloud revenue and model economics. Broadcom signs long-term deal to develop Google’s custom AI chips
- Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud is the fastest‑growing major cloud platform (roughly 50% YoY in Q4), with a surging $240B cloud backlog and TPU hardware advantage — all supporting durable high‑margin cloud and AI revenue growth. This is the fundamental thesis investors are buying. Google Cloud Is the World’s Fastest-Growing Major Cloud Platform
- Positive Sentiment: Anthropic’s expanding compute deals (and use of Google/Broadcom capacity/TPUs) underline third‑party customer demand for Google’s AI infrastructure, implying higher cloud consumption from large AI model operators. Anthropic ups compute deal with Google and Broadcom amid skyrocketing demand
- Positive Sentiment: CEO Sundar Pichai’s remarks that the AI shift creates new opportunities to invest in startups signal active capital deployment into strategic AI partners and stakes (e.g., Anthropic/others), which could strengthen ecosystem ties and long‑term cloud demand. Google CEO Sundar Pichai says ‘AI shift’ opens opportunities to invest in startups
- Positive Sentiment: On‑device AI rollouts (Gemma 4, offline support) and developer stickiness help Google broaden endpoints for its AI stack, lowering customer AI costs and increasing multi‑layer monetization (cloud + device + API). Alphabet Stock Edges Higher Tuesday: What’s Going On?
- Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and boutiques are updating price targets and reiterating constructive theses on GOOGL as a large‑cap AI/cloud play; useful for sentiment but not an immediate catalyst on its own. Wall Street analyst updates Google stock price target
- Negative Sentiment: Shareholder pressure over water and power use at U.S. data centers highlights regulatory/community and ESG risks that could delay or increase the cost of future data‑center builds — a potential headwind for capex timelines and site availability. Investors press Amazon, Microsoft and Google on water, power use in US data centers
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Alphabet
Alphabet Stock Up 1.8%
GOOGL stock opened at $305.46 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $3.70 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.26, a PEG ratio of 1.81 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 $143.03 and a 12 month high of $349.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $308.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $297.62.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Alphabet Announces Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.77%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet
In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total transaction of $10,006,425.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,060 shares in the company, valued at $505,573,853.40. This trade represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total transaction of $33,934.88. Following the sale, the director owned 18,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,580,469.82. This represents a 0.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,069,344 shares of company stock worth $104,708,426. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.
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.
Further Reading
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