Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC Grows Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 35.8% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,611 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,851 shares during the quarter. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,202,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at about $416,217,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 887,209 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $277,696,000 after acquiring an additional 93,293 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors increased its stake in Alphabet by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 274,761 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $86,000,000 after acquiring an additional 23,107 shares during the period. PFG Investments LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.6% during the first quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 89,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $25,679,000 after acquiring an additional 2,269 shares during the period. Finally, Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd as trustee for Retail Employees Superannuation Trust acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,902,000. 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: 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 Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.72, for a total value of $153,432.28. Following the sale, 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. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 160,465 shares of company stock worth $8,020,511 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price objective (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $390.00 target price (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $425.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Truist Financial set a $430.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, China Renaissance boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $413.92.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $357.18 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $372.61 and a 200-day moving average of $336.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $176.48 and a twelve month high of $408.61. The firm has a market cap of $4.33 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

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.