Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stock Holdings Raised by Smith Group Asset Management LLC

Smith Group Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 262,620 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,067 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 3.9% of Smith Group Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Smith Group Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $75,519,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $30,534,239,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 855.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position 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 boosted its position 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. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 28,950.0% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is seeking up to $25 billion through a 10-part U.S. bond offering, with reports indicating orders could exceed $115 billion. The strong demand suggests investors and lenders remain confident in Alphabet’s credit profile, while the funds will support AI data centers, computing capacity and other corporate needs. Alphabet seeks up to $25 billion from its latest bond sale
• Positive Sentiment: AI demand continues to create growth opportunities for Google Cloud. AI lab Mirendil signed a multiyear agreement worth more than $100 million for Google Cloud computing capacity, reinforcing demand for Alphabet’s infrastructure and services. Mirendil signs Google Cloud deal
• Neutral Sentiment: Demis Hassabis is moving from day-to-day leadership of Google DeepMind to become Alphabet’s chief scientist and chair of DeepMind, with a focus on long-term research, artificial general intelligence and Isomorphic Labs. Management says the change is intended to improve coordination between research and commercialization. Demis Hassabis new role
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that Hassabis’ reduced operating role, combined with the departure of longtime chief scientist Jeff Dean and other senior researchers, could weaken Alphabet’s ability to retain talent and compete in frontier AI. The leadership changes followed concerns about delays in Google’s next-generation Gemini products. Google AI leadership departures
• Negative Sentiment: The debt offering highlights the scale of Alphabet’s AI spending. Although borrowing can preserve cash for operations, it increases interest obligations and intensifies scrutiny over whether future AI revenue will justify the substantial capital investment. Alphabet bond offering and AI spending
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s planned $15 billion India data-center project faces opposition over potential effects on water supplies and wildlife, creating possible permitting, reputational and construction risks. Google India data center environmental concerns

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Alphabet from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley set a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. DA Davidson set a $350.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Evercore boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, HSBC restated a “buy” rating and set a $420.00 price objective (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $419.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $357.75 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $356.20 and its 200 day moving average is $340.31. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $4.38 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.97, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.24. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $194.33 and a 12-month high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. The business had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.07 billion. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 118,138 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.90, for a total transaction of $2,232,808.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.39, for a total value of $27,337.98. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,305,738.46. The trade was a 0.43% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 600,547 shares of company stock worth $16,255,540. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.