Willis Investment Counsel Has $17.80 Million Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Posted by Stanley Muller on Aug 23rd, 2026

Willis Investment Counsel increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Free Report) by 22.4% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 49,797 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,120 shares during the period. Willis Investment Counsel’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,796,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after acquiring an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $685,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 11.2% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $85,557,000 after purchasing an additional 48,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank increased its position in Alphabet by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,495,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

Positive Sentiment: Rosenblatt upgraded Alphabet to “strong buy” and reiterated a $410 price target, implying substantial upside and reinforcing the bullish view following Alphabet’s strong earnings report. Alphabet upgraded by Rosenblatt Securities
Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI spending continues to attract major customers and suppliers. Marvell’s custom-chip agreement includes a warrant structure that would require up to $120 billion of cumulative purchases from Google for full vesting, signaling the potentially enormous scale of Alphabet’s TPU and AI infrastructure buildout. Google’s Marvell warrant
Positive Sentiment: Waymo received approval to operate up to thousands of commercial robotaxis in Nevada and opened its lower-cost next-generation vehicle to riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. Lower production and operating costs could improve the long-term economics of Alphabet’s autonomous-driving unit. Waymo Nevada robotaxi approval
Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s earnings momentum remains a support for the stock. The company recently exceeded consensus estimates for both adjusted earnings and revenue, while analysts and prominent investors—including Berkshire Hathaway—continue to highlight Alphabet’s AI positioning and valuation.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total transaction of $3,142,911.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 75,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,298,044.10. This trade represents a 10.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.39, for a total value of $27,337.98. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,914 shares in the company, valued at $6,305,738.46. The trade was a 0.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 451,945 shares of company stock valued at $12,382,714. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $410.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Daiwa Securities Group upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price objective on Alphabet from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $420.19.

View Our Latest Stock Report on Alphabet

Alphabet Trading Up 1.2%

GOOGL opened at $344.82 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.64. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $201.30 and a fifty-two week high of $408.61. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $352.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $341.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.22 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.32, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Alphabet Profile

(Free Report)

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.