Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL is LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.’s 4th Largest Position

LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. boosted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 171.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 412,813 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 260,497 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 5.2% of LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $118,709,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 4,110 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 3.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY raised its holdings in Alphabet by 17.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 11.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $85,557,000 after acquiring an additional 48,805 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank lifted its stake in Alphabet by 6.9% in 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reportedly developed a new AI server chip, “Frozen v2,” to make Gemini run more efficiently, which could improve margins and help ease compute constraints for Google Cloud. Reuters: Google plans new chip to run Gemini models more efficiently
• Positive Sentiment: Google released new Gemini models, including cheaper and more efficient versions, signaling continued AI product momentum ahead of earnings. TechCrunch: Google releases three new Gemini models
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentary remain constructive on Alphabet going into Q2 results, with expectations that Search and Google Cloud can still deliver strong growth. Yahoo Finance: Alphabet Q2 Earnings Preview
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s earnings report on Wednesday is expected to be a major market test for AI spending, cloud growth, and capital expenditure discipline. Invezz: What to expect from Alphabet’s Q2 earnings
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet is also facing a cluster of securities-fraud investigation headlines, though these are largely legal overhangs at this stage rather than new operational news. PR Newswire: Securities fraud investigation continues
• Negative Sentiment: Reuters reported that a flagship Gemini model remains delayed, adding to investor worries that heavy AI spending may not translate into results quickly enough. Reuters: Alphabet’s Gemini delay, spending worries loom over earnings

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Wolfe Research lowered their target price on Alphabet from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 10th. Freedom Capital downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. China Renaissance boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $455.00 price target (up from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday. Three 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $414.54.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total transaction of $39,343.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,615,656.24. The trade was a 0.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.4%

GOOGL opened at $347.15 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $187.46 and a 52 week high of $408.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $367.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $338.65. The firm has a market cap of $4.21 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

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.