Legal & General Group Plc Has $11.87 Billion Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 37,912,752 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,338,077 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 2.6% of Legal & General Group Plc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $11,866,691,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth about $416,217,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 887,209 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $277,696,000 after purchasing an additional 93,293 shares during the period. Sovran Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 23.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,401,000 after purchasing an additional 4,241 shares during the period. Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 72,608 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,652,000 after purchasing an additional 3,740 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,666,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $405,131,000 after purchasing an additional 60,831 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on GOOGL. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $393.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Citigroup reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, May 4th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price target on Alphabet from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Wolfe Research lowered their price target on Alphabet from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 10th. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $425.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Two equities research 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 stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $413.13.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,923,235.59. This trade represents a 5.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 18,721 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,132,701. This represents a 0.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 193,016 shares of company stock worth $17,282,549. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet secured a major cloud deal with SpaceX, adding a high-profile customer and boosting the investment case for its AI infrastructure business. SpaceX signs cloud deal with Google
• Positive Sentiment: New Street Research raised its price target on Alphabet to $455 and reiterated a buy rating, signaling continued Wall Street confidence. MarketScreener
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports said Google’s AI search and chatbot products faced criticism after an audit found many chatbot responses on elections were flawed, which may keep pressure on Alphabet’s AI credibility. Over 90% of AI chatbot answers about midterm elections are flawed, stunning analysis shows
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s large equity raise and higher AI capex guidance are still weighing on sentiment because investors are questioning how quickly those investments will pay off. Alphabet is seeking fresh capital as stock’s 4-week losing streak tests investor appetite
• Negative Sentiment: Google also faces regulatory pressure in the UK over publisher-content rules in AI search, adding another policy risk for the business. Google search facing UK ‘conduct requirement’

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $368.53 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $352.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $328.11. 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 1 year low of $162.00 and a 1 year high of $408.61. The firm has a market cap of $4.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.11, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 14.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 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.