WMS Group LLC Buys New Shares in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

WMS Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 8,078 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,528,000. Alphabet comprises approximately 3.2% of WMS Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,625,595,000 after purchasing an additional 2,666,676 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,534,239,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Alphabet by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 69,108,183 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $21,630,861,000 after purchasing an additional 3,218,852 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $381.00, for a total value of $38,862.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,132,701. This represents a 0.54% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total value of $178,701.71. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at $2,923,235.59. The trade was a 5.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 160,516 shares of company stock worth $7,344,604. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $368.48 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $162.00 and a 12-month high of $408.61. The company has a market capitalization of $4.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $367.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $332.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. The company had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were paid a $0.22 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is being viewed as a major AI winner thanks to ongoing investment in AI infrastructure and data centers, which could support future cloud and AI revenue growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Berkshire Hathaway nearly tripled its Alphabet position may be seen as a strong vote of confidence from a major long-term investor. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage emphasizing Alphabet’s strong earnings and expanding Google Cloud backlog supports the case for continued fundamental improvement. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s stock is drawing increased investor attention and analyst commentary, but these are mostly sentiment-driven mentions rather than new company-specific catalysts. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Noam Shazeer, a top Google DeepMind/Gemini AI leader, is leaving for OpenAI, underscoring the competitive AI talent war. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: John Jumper is also departing Google DeepMind for Anthropic, adding to concerns that Alphabet may be losing key AI researchers. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo’s recall of nearly 3,900 robotaxis after construction-zone driving errors raises safety and regulatory concerns for Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle business. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: The UK ordering Google to improve search-ranking transparency highlights continued regulatory scrutiny over its core search business. Article Title

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Alphabet from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Barclays reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on Alphabet from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Loop Capital increased their price target on Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $413.13.

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.