MidFirst Bank Takes Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

MidFirst Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 153,401 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $47,832,000. Alphabet accounts for 3.7% of MidFirst Bank’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. DGS Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 29.6% during the 4th quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 25,642 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,026,000 after acquiring an additional 5,852 shares during the period. Ketron Financial purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $20,470,000. Coastline Complete Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $1,994,000. SG Trading Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $21,224,000. Finally, Titan Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $4,806,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $368.48 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.11, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $162.00 and a 12-month high of $408.61. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $367.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $331.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 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 given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 6.71%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Daiwa Securities Group boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. HSBC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $420.00 price target (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $395.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $425.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.13.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is being viewed as a major AI winner thanks to ongoing investment in AI infrastructure and data centers, which could support future cloud and AI revenue growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Berkshire Hathaway nearly tripled its Alphabet position may be seen as a strong vote of confidence from a major long-term investor. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage emphasizing Alphabet’s strong earnings and expanding Google Cloud backlog supports the case for continued fundamental improvement. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s stock is drawing increased investor attention and analyst commentary, but these are mostly sentiment-driven mentions rather than new company-specific catalysts. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Noam Shazeer, a top Google DeepMind/Gemini AI leader, is leaving for OpenAI, underscoring the competitive AI talent war. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: John Jumper is also departing Google DeepMind for Anthropic, adding to concerns that Alphabet may be losing key AI researchers. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo’s recall of nearly 3,900 robotaxis after construction-zone driving errors raises safety and regulatory concerns for Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle business. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: The UK ordering Google to improve search-ranking transparency highlights continued regulatory scrutiny over its core search business. Article Title

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total value of $178,701.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,923,235.59. The trade was a 5.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total transaction of $387,061.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $545,941.03. The trade was a 41.49% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 160,516 shares of company stock worth $7,344,604. 11.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.