Carnegie Investment Counsel Cuts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Carnegie Investment Counsel lowered its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.2% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 602,258 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 26,224 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 3.3% of Carnegie Investment Counsel’s holdings, making the stock its biggest position. Carnegie Investment Counsel’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $170,547,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after acquiring an additional 4,110 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after acquiring an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY boosted its stake in Alphabet by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $685,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 11.2% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $85,557,000 after purchasing an additional 48,805 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank increased its holdings in Alphabet by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,495,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reportedly developed a new AI server chip, “Frozen v2,” to make Gemini run more efficiently, which could improve margins and help ease compute constraints for Google Cloud. Reuters: Google plans new chip to run Gemini models more efficiently
• Positive Sentiment: Google released new Gemini models, including cheaper and more efficient versions, signaling continued AI product momentum ahead of earnings. TechCrunch: Google releases three new Gemini models
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentary remain constructive on Alphabet going into Q2 results, with expectations that Search and Google Cloud can still deliver strong growth. Yahoo Finance: Alphabet Q2 Earnings Preview
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s earnings report on Wednesday is expected to be a major market test for AI spending, cloud growth, and capital expenditure discipline. Invezz: What to expect from Alphabet’s Q2 earnings
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet is also facing a cluster of securities-fraud investigation headlines, though these are largely legal overhangs at this stage rather than new operational news. PR Newswire: Securities fraud investigation continues
• Negative Sentiment: Reuters reported that a flagship Gemini model remains delayed, adding to investor worries that heavy AI spending may not translate into results quickly enough. Reuters: Alphabet’s Gemini delay, spending worries loom over earnings

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, May 4th. 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. Truist Financial set a $430.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price target on Alphabet from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $455.00 price objective (up from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday. Three research 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $414.54.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total value of $387,061.50. Following the sale, the director directly owned 1,481 shares in the company, valued at $545,941.03. The trade was a 41.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279. 11.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $347.15 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $187.46 and a 1 year high of $408.61. The firm has a market cap of $4.21 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $367.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $338.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were paid a $0.22 dividend. 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.