Giverny Capital Inc. Has $113.12 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Giverny Capital Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 361,398 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,255 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 3.8% of Giverny Capital Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest position. Giverny Capital Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $113,118,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $52,000. Kentucky Trust Co lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 142.9% during the 4th quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $53,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Tigress Financial set a $415.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $390.00 price target (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Alphabet from $410.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $460.00 price target (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total value of $10,006,425.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,060 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $505,573,853.40. This represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 191,966 shares of company stock worth $16,963,968 in the last 90 days. 11.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet News Roundup

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

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $359.68 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $162.00 and a 1 year high of $408.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $360.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $330.34. The stock has a market cap of $4.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.44, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued 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. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The business had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 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.