Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL is Ethic Inc.’s 4th Largest Position

Ethic Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 592,811 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 36,618 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 2.8% of Ethic Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Ethic Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $185,550,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $165,567,398,000 after buying an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Alphabet by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after buying an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Alphabet by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Alphabet by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 50,732,476 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,333,076,000 after purchasing an additional 6,874,381 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 45,186,112 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,984,744,000 after purchasing an additional 1,034,292 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total transaction of $412,923.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $995,341.06. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total value of $178,701.71. Following 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 ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 226,481 shares of company stock worth $27,422,061 in the last 90 days. 11.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is testing Gemini-powered Search ads, including conversational and contextual ad formats that could improve monetization and help offset concerns that AI search may weaken its core advertising model.
• Positive Sentiment: Google and CrowdStrike helped take down a botnet targeting open-source software developers, reinforcing Alphabet’s cybersecurity capabilities and its role in defending the broader internet ecosystem.
• Positive Sentiment: Reports around Google I/O and Alphabet’s broader AI lineup, including new Gemini features and AI search tools, suggest the company is still aggressively innovating to defend its leadership in search and advertising.
• Neutral Sentiment: Google’s $15 billion Missouri AI data hub investment highlights long-term infrastructure spending to support AI growth, but the near-term stock impact is likely limited.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet has drawn market focus from traders and analysts, with prediction-market activity suggesting shares may stay near current levels in the short term.
• Negative Sentiment: DuckDuckGo reported rising installs as some users respond negatively to Google’s AI Search overhaul, raising investor concerns that the redesign could push a portion of users toward competitors.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged that one Google AI Search result was “more opinionated than it should be,” underscoring the risk of AI accuracy issues and potential user trust problems.
• Negative Sentiment: Federal prosecutors charged a Google employee with insider trading tied to Polymarket bets, creating a reputational overhang even though the case appears to involve an individual employee rather than core business operations.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $388.83 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $162.00 and a one year high of $408.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $342.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $323.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.71 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.26.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.41%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GOOGL. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $425.00 price objective (up from $395.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Moffett Nathanson upped their price objective on Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $425.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, DZ Bank restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, February 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $412.65.

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.