Barr E S & Co. Decreases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Barr E S & Co. decreased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 8.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 180,116 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 17,550 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 2.9% of Barr E S & Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Barr E S & Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $56,376,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after buying an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.6% in the 2nd quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $685,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $85,557,000 after buying an additional 48,805 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,495,000 after buying an additional 3,120 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on GOOGL. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $390.00 price target (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price objective (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Daiwa Securities Group raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $393.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $413.04.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of Alphabet 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 SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total transaction of $2,481,078.77. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,293,309.12. The trade was a 14.79% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 193,016 shares of company stock valued at $17,282,549. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet raised its capital plan to $84.75 billion to fund AI infrastructure and cloud capacity, signaling it expects strong demand for compute and is willing to invest heavily to protect and grow its long-term AI position. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Apple reportedly tapped Google Cloud to help power a revamped Siri, which could add a high-profile customer for Alphabet’s cloud business and reinforce its AI infrastructure monetization story. PYMNTS article
• Positive Sentiment: Lovable expanded its multi-year Google Cloud relationship, another sign that Google Cloud is winning AI-related usage and customer growth. TechCrunch article
• Positive Sentiment: Needham reiterated a buy rating and a $450 price target, reflecting continued analyst confidence in Alphabet’s cloud and AI growth potential. Benzinga article
• Neutral Sentiment: Several prominent investors, including Berkshire Hathaway and ARK, were reported as buying Alphabet shares, which supports sentiment but does not change fundamentals on its own. Barron’s article
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet also received a softer-than-feared UK antitrust ruling that requires new conduct changes and lets publishers opt out of AI training, which may limit some data use but reduces the risk of a harsher regulatory outcome. Reuters article
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Google is quietly laying off staff in Cloud, including parts of its cybersecurity team, may weigh on sentiment by raising questions about cost discipline and internal restructuring. Business Insider article

Alphabet Stock Up 3.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $372.19 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.39, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $351.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $327.52. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $162.00 and a fifty-two week high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its 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 business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.28 earnings per share for the current 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 issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 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.