AMG National Trust Bank Raises Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

AMG National Trust Bank increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 17.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 80,972 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 12,119 shares during the quarter. AMG National Trust Bank’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $23,228,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after purchasing an additional 6,410 shares in the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 76.2% in the 2nd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 1,865,304 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $330,886,000 after buying an additional 806,681 shares during the last quarter. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $658,000. Financial Advisors Network Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% during the second quarter. Financial Advisors Network Inc. now owns 7,945 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,409,000 after acquiring an additional 565 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.7% during the second quarter. Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. now owns 37,310 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,618,000 after acquiring an additional 3,616 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet News Roundup

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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Phillip Securities lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Truist Financial set a $430.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, UBS Group set a $430.00 target price on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.44.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG stock opened at $346.12 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $4.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.23. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $184.73 and a 12-month high of $404.47. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $366.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $336.65.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 6.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 transaction, the director directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company 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.