Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL is Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ 7th Largest Position

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 8.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,704,990 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 204,162 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.5% of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $846,740,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 worth $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted 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 worth $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 50,732,476 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,333,076,000 after acquiring an additional 6,874,381 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 45,186,112 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,984,744,000 after acquiring an additional 1,034,292 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Down 3.9%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $361.85 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $347.16 and a 200 day moving average of $325.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $4.38 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.23. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $162.00 and a twelve month high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. The company had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be given 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 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.41%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total value of $2,481,078.77. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,293,309.12. This trade represents a 14.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total value of $178,701.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,923,235.59. The trade was a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 193,016 shares of company stock valued at $17,282,549 in the last 90 days. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway’s $10 billion investment signals strong outside confidence in Alphabet’s AI and cloud strategy. Alphabet plans to raise $80 billion for AI goals, Berkshire to invest $10 billion
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentators continue to argue that Alphabet remains a high-margin cash generator with attractive long-term earnings power. Google: AI Skeptics Proven Wrong as Business Booms
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage of Alphabet’s expanding AI coding, hardware, and device strategy highlights broader growth opportunities, but it is not the main driver of today’s move. Microsoft and Google are late to AI coding, but ‘absolutely critical’ they compete for growth
• Negative Sentiment: The proposed $80 billion stock sale raises dilution concerns and underscores how expensive Alphabet’s AI race has become. Exclusive: EU cloud rules to curb Amazon, Google access to strategic tenders, draft document shows
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that EU cloud rules could restrict Google’s access to strategic government tenders add a regulatory overhang for the cloud business. Alphabet to raise $80 billion in equity capital for AI spending

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, April 20th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.04.

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.