Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL is Columbia Bank’s 6th Largest Position

Columbia Bank cut its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 9.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 45,948 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 4,654 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 4.0% of Columbia Bank’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Columbia Bank’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $14,382,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Symmetry Partners LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Symmetry Partners LLC now owns 7,912 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,476,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Members Trust Co increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 6,434 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,014,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. now owns 7,952 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,489,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Insight 2811 Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Insight 2811 Inc. now owns 3,124 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $978,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, LJI Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. LJI Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,265 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,274,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s drone unit Wing expanded its Walmart partnership into seven more U.S. cities, pushing the service toward nearly 20 markets and signaling that drone delivery is moving from experiment to scalable business. Alphabet’s Most Overlooked Division Just Had a Big Week
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo launched a new $29.99 monthly membership program with perks for frequent riders, a move that suggests the robotaxi business is building recurring revenue on top of rapid ride-growth. Waymo launches premier subscription tier for $29.99 a month, starting in select cities
• Positive Sentiment: TD Cowen raised its price target on Alphabet, adding to the bullish analyst backdrop and supporting the view that the stock still has room to run. Alphabet (GOOGL) Among Our Good Stocks to Buy Now
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America and other commentary highlighted Alphabet as a long-term AI beneficiary, especially as rising model costs could strengthen demand for Google Cloud and infrastructure. Anthropic’s Priciest AI Model Yet Is Here. Why Alphabet and Amazon Will Benefit.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet sued an alleged Chinese cybercrime group accused of using Google’s AI tools to run scam operations, which shows the company is actively defending its platform but is not likely to move the stock much on its own. Google sues alleged Chinese cybercrime operation that used AI to send scam texts
• Neutral Sentiment: Some investors noted that Altimeter Capital fully exited its Alphabet stake in Q1, but this appears more like portfolio repositioning than a company-specific warning. Billionaire Brad Gerstner Dumped All of His Alphabet Then Bought 2 Stocks Nobody Expected

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price target (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Alphabet from $395.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Alphabet from $410.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $413.13.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $359.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. The firm has a market cap of $4.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s fifty day moving average is $360.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $330.26. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $162.00 and a 52 week high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. The company 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%. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total transaction of $412,923.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,531 shares in the company, valued at $995,341.06. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the business’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 sale, the director owned 18,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,132,701. The trade was a 0.54% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 193,016 shares of company stock valued at $17,282,549 over the last quarter. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.