Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stake Reduced by Welch & Forbes LLC

Welch & Forbes LLC cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.8% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 409,445 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 11,680 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 1.5% of Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $117,740,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $30,534,239,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 855.3% in the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 14,525,280 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,546,413,000 after purchasing an additional 13,004,828 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $165,567,398,000 after buying an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% during the third 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, Diamant Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 28,950.0% during the first quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,291,926 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,671,986,000 after buying an additional 9,259,940 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total transaction of $387,061.50. Following the transaction, the director owned 1,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $545,941.03. This trade represents a 41.49% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 159,415 shares of company stock valued at $7,672,279. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Barclays reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $445.00 price target (up from $425.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Truist Financial set a $430.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on Alphabet from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $414.54.

Key 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

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $347.15 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $4.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.48, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $187.46 and a 12 month high of $408.61. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $367.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $338.65.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.71%.

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.