Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by Geneos Wealth Management Inc.

Geneos Wealth Management Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 11.8% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 73,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 9,875 shares during the quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $21,195,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $38,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Imprint Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Towne Trust Company N.A boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 34.0% during the 4th quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 134 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Phillip Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, Pivotal Research reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $470.00 price target (up from $420.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $383.44.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total value of $39,343.36. Following the sale, the director owned 18,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,615,656.24. The trade was a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.2%

GOOG opened at $346.12 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50-day moving average of $366.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $336.65. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $184.73 and a 12 month high of $404.47.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $2.43. The company had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.96 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.81 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were issued a $0.22 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.71%.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America and Wedbush remain bullish, with both highlighting strong cloud growth, AI monetization potential, and upside to the stock ahead of earnings. Alphabet could crush estimates on Cloud strength, Anthropic windfall: BofA
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors are still pointing to accelerating Google Search and Google Cloud growth, while retail interest and institutional ownership remain strong ahead of the July 22 report.
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI and cloud businesses remain central to the bullish thesis, with multiple articles noting that the company could benefit from rising AI infrastructure spend and strong earnings expectations.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.