Portus Wealth Advisors LLC Buys New Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Portus Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 4,932 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,199,000. Alphabet accounts for about 1.2% of Portus Wealth Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $21,944,208,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $4,338,397,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,686,640,000 after buying an additional 15,159,273 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its holdings 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 51.7% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,607,232,000 after buying an additional 10,843,853 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $307.69 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.72 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.46, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $349.00. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $318.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $291.85. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 7.77%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wolfe Research upped their price target on Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $415.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up from $365.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Three research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $367.18.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, 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 sale, the director owned 4,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,405,091.71. The trade was a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total transaction of $284,590.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,955,564. This trade represents a 8.78% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 2,110,165 shares of company stock worth $118,134,117 in the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Top AI and strategy hires strengthen DeepMind execution — Jasjeet Sekhon, Bridgewater’s chief scientist, is joining Google’s DeepMind as chief strategy officer, boosting AI talent and strategy depth that supports product leadership and monetization opportunities. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Cloud/security M&A expands enterprise angle — Alphabet’s acquisition of Wiz strengthens Google Cloud’s security stack, a key competitive lever vs. AWS/Azure and a driver of higher-margin, enterprise revenue. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Defense relationships could open government revenue paths — reporting says Google has rebuilt ties with the Pentagon, which could translate to lucrative contracts if political headwinds remain manageable. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: AI product momentum pressures rivals — Google’s Stitch redesign (AI → UI generation) is already rattling competitors like Adobe, signaling product strength that could help user growth and ad/cloud adoption. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Regulatory concession may reduce UK friction — Google said it will build search controls allowing sites to opt out of generative-AI features, a move that could blunt UK CMA concerns but may limit feature reach. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Supply-chain / infrastructure sourcing discussions — Google is in talks with Chinese firms for data-center liquid-cooling equipment; could reduce capex cost or invite scrutiny depending on geopolitics. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Large planned capex raises near-term margin and valuation questions — Alphabet’s plan to invest up to ~$185B by 2026 and higher AI-driven capex fuels concerns about margin pressure and whether current P/E already prices in that spending. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation debate persists despite upbeat fundamentals — analysts remain optimistic, but some write-ups flag Alphabet’s ~25–29x P/E and rising capex as limiting near-term upside vs. expectations. Article Title

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.