Costello Asset Management INC Sells 3,079 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Costello Asset Management INC lowered its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.9% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 59,162 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 3,079 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 5.9% of Costello Asset Management INC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Costello Asset Management INC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,013,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 26.3% during the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 5,020 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,444,000 after purchasing an additional 1,044 shares during the period. Range Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 48.2% in the 1st quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 4,651 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,337,000 after purchasing an additional 1,513 shares during the last quarter. Texas Bank & Trust Co grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Texas Bank & Trust Co now owns 35,633 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,247,000 after buying an additional 390 shares during the period. Waterfront Wealth Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Waterfront Wealth Inc. now owns 30,982 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,909,000 after buying an additional 991 shares during the period. Finally, Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,999 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,588,000 after buying an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $455.00 price objective (up from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial set a $430.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Alphabet from $370.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $393.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $414.11.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total transaction of $3,142,911.42. Following the sale, the insider owned 75,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. This represents a 10.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.72, for a total transaction of $153,432.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,345,358.56. The trade was a 1.62% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 159,415 shares of company stock valued at $7,672,279. 11.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $346.77 on Monday. 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 market capitalization of $4.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.45, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.24. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $183.71 and a twelve month high of $408.61. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $368.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $338.14.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains broadly bullish on Alphabet, with multiple reports citing strong cloud growth, AI-driven momentum in Search and YouTube, and price targets still above current trading levels. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts say Alphabet could post a strong Q2, helped by Google Cloud strength and the value of its Anthropic stake, which may support upside if earnings beat expectations. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also positioning for Alphabet’s upcoming earnings report, with options traders expecting a sizable move, indicating that the stock may stay volatile into the release. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Bloomberg-reported delays to Gemini 3.5 Pro have sparked fears that Google is lagging in AI, with concerns that the model’s coding performance fell short of internal goals. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet is facing added regulatory pressure after the EU ordered it to open Android and search data to rival AI companies, and a San Francisco order to remove “nudify” apps from app stores adds to the broader legal overhang. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Securities-fraud investigation headlines are creating an additional near-term overhang, even though these are still allegations and not a proven finding of wrongdoing. Article Title

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.