Focus Partners Wealth Grows Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Focus Partners Wealth grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 65.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,054,798 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,609,694 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.4% of Focus Partners Wealth’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Focus Partners Wealth’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,257,098,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. Kentucky Trust Co lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 142.9% during the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $53,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of several research reports. CICC Research increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $388.00 to $407.91 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Barclays reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $515.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Two 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $413.13.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 191,966 shares of company stock valued at $16,963,968. 11.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $359.68 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $360.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $330.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $162.00 and a fifty-two week high of $408.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.44, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change 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 payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

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

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.