West Branch Capital LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

West Branch Capital LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 89,799 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,572 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 5.7% of West Branch Capital LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. West Branch Capital LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $21,830,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $21,944,208,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the second 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 purchasing an additional 15,159,273 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 51.7% in the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,607,232,000 after purchasing an additional 10,843,853 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after purchasing an additional 6,733,278 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in Alphabet by 201.3% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,547,250 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,153,824,000 after buying an additional 4,374,542 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI & advertising momentum: Analysts and media posit that Alphabet’s Gemini/AI-search progress and a strong advertising engine are driving a renewed rally and expectations that the company can join the $4 trillion market-cap group. Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence Stock Will Become a Member of the $4 Trillion Club in 2026
• Positive Sentiment: Market-cap milestone: Alphabet has overtaken Apple to become the world’s second-most valuable public company — a status shift that can attract index/ETF flows and underpins momentum. Google Claims Apple’s Spot on Most-Valuable-Companies List
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street upgrades: Multiple analysts have raised price targets and issued bullish notes heading into 2026, reinforcing institutional demand and supporting higher valuations. Analyst revises Google stock price target for the next 12 months
• Neutral Sentiment: Wiz acquisition pending EU decision: The EU will decide on Alphabet’s $32B Wiz buy by Feb. 10 — resolution will remove a major overhang but could bring remedies or conditions. EU antitrust regulators to decide on Google’s Wiz deal by February 10
• Neutral Sentiment: Lawsuit settlements on AI chatbots: Alphabet and Character.AI settled suits tied to minors’ harm, which reduces immediate legal uncertainty but keeps reputational and regulatory scrutiny active. Google and Character.AI to Settle Lawsuit Over Teenager’s Death
• Negative Sentiment: App-store pressure from U.S. senators: Three Democratic senators urged Apple and Google to suspend Elon Musk’s X and Grok apps after allegations that Grok-enabled image generation facilitated sexualized images of minors — this directly implicates Google’s Play Store and could invite political/regulatory attention. Grok and X should be suspended from Apple, Google app stores, Democratic senators say
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares (SEC filing). The sale is small relative to his holdings but can be viewed negatively by some market participants. Sundar Pichai stock sale filing
• Negative Sentiment: Talent poaching: Nvidia hired a senior Google marketing executive as CMO — a signal that top talent is mobile amid fierce AI competition, which could concern investors about retention. Nvidia Hires Google Veteran as Its First Chief Marketing Officer

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.48, for a total transaction of $9,213,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,337,119 shares in the company, valued at $662,526,494.12. The trade was a 1.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total value of $800,786.28. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,383,884.14. The trade was a 19.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 225,187 shares of company stock worth $66,695,036. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Loop Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $260.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Alphabet from $340.00 to $343.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $306.00 price target (up previously from $255.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $300.00 price objective (up from $265.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, October 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.19.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $328.57 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $306.19 and a 200 day moving average of $248.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $330.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%.The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.28%.

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.