Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Acquired by Leelyn Smith LLC

Leelyn Smith LLC increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,218 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,394 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 1.6% of Leelyn Smith LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Leelyn Smith LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $11,565,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.5%

NASDAQ GOOGL traded down $1.71 on Friday, hitting $357.18. 18,122,822 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 32,870,564. 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 moving average of $372.61 and a 200 day moving average of $336.44. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $176.48 and a twelve month high of $408.61. The company has a market capitalization of $4.33 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date was 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 yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: KeyCorp raised its price target on Alphabet to $445 from $425 and kept an overweight rating, reinforcing the view that the stock still has meaningful upside from current levels.
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple upbeat articles highlighted Alphabet as a leading AI and cloud beneficiary, with commentary pointing to strong distribution through Search, Android, YouTube, Google Cloud, and chips as reasons it could monetize AI better than peers.
• Positive Sentiment: New coverage argued Alphabet looks undervalued after a big run over the past year, while other pieces said the company remains one of the most attractive megacap tech names on a risk/reward basis.
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks and other market commentators continued to include GOOGL among cloud and internet stocks positioned to benefit from AI-driven data center spending and digital demand growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Business and tech commentary also pointed to product and platform strengths, including Google Search setting records during the World Cup and Waymo planning more driverless-car expansion, which support the long-term growth narrative.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet said it will begin disclosing which ads are generated with AI, a transparency move that may help trust and compliance but is unlikely to materially change near-term earnings.
• Neutral Sentiment: Britain moved to regulate Google as a critical cloud supplier to protect financial stability; the change adds oversight, but it also underscores the importance of Google Cloud rather than signaling a fundamental business setback.
• Neutral Sentiment: Reuters reported that Google is appealing an Indian ads-related trademark ruling, a legal issue that could create some noise but does not yet appear to be a major stock-moving event.
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent short-interest data was effectively flat at zero shares reported, offering little actionable signal for traders.
• Negative Sentiment: One Reuters-linked report said Google and OpenAI provided AI services to Singapore-based subsidiaries of Chinese groups on the Pentagon blacklist, which could raise regulatory scrutiny and geopolitical concerns.
• Negative Sentiment: Technical commentary noted Alphabet is testing a key resistance zone after a recovery, suggesting the stock may need a fresh catalyst to extend its move higher.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total transaction of $39,343.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,615,656.24. This trade represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 160,465 shares of company stock valued at $8,020,511 in the last ninety days. 11.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America raised their price objective on Alphabet from $370.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. CICC Research increased their target price on Alphabet from $388.00 to $407.91 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price target (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $413.92.

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.