Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stock Holdings Lifted by Castleark Management LLC

Castleark Management LLC lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 381,639 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,760 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 3.5% of Castleark Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Castleark Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $119,453,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Kentucky Trust Co grew its position in Alphabet by 142.9% during the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd purchased a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Finally, Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $69,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $515.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $370.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Freedom Capital cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Arete Research lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $405.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. 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 presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $413.13.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $359.68 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $162.00 and a 1 year high of $408.61. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $360.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $330.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

More Alphabet News

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total value of $412,923.00. Following the sale, the director owned 2,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $995,341.06. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at $2,923,235.59. This trade represents a 5.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 193,016 shares of company stock worth $17,282,549. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.