Bleakley Financial Group LLC Raises Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 200,415 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,877 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 0.9% of Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $57,491,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. V2 Financial group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.4% in the 1st quarter. V2 Financial group LLC now owns 14,995 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,302,000 after purchasing an additional 2,226 shares in the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 1,573,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $451,305,000 after purchasing an additional 4,300 shares in the last quarter. TFR Capital LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the first quarter. TFR Capital LLC. now owns 31,247 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,964,000 after purchasing an additional 545 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.1% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,181,946 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,060,213,000 after buying an additional 718,053 shares during the period. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% in the first quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 79,616 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,839,000 after buying an additional 3,461 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $346.12 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $366.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $336.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $184.73 and a 12-month high of $404.47. The company has a market cap of $4.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $2.43. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The company had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.81 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,348 shares in the company, valued at $9,345,358.56. This trade represents a 1.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total value of $387,061.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 1,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $545,941.03. This represents a 41.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Key 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $425.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, April 20th. UBS Group set a $430.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 price target on Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $430.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $383.44.

Alphabet Profile

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.