Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL is Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s 10th Largest Position

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 243,955 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,435 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 2.1% of Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $76,358,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Kentucky Trust Co grew its holdings in Alphabet by 142.9% during the 4th quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $53,000. Finally, Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $69,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total transaction of $2,481,078.77. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,293,309.12. The trade was a 14.79% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 193,016 shares of company stock worth $17,282,549. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s drone unit Wing expanded its Walmart partnership into seven more U.S. cities, pushing the service toward nearly 20 markets and signaling that drone delivery is moving from experiment to scalable business. Alphabet’s Most Overlooked Division Just Had a Big Week
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo launched a new $29.99 monthly membership program with perks for frequent riders, a move that suggests the robotaxi business is building recurring revenue on top of rapid ride-growth. Waymo launches premier subscription tier for $29.99 a month, starting in select cities
• Positive Sentiment: TD Cowen raised its price target on Alphabet, adding to the bullish analyst backdrop and supporting the view that the stock still has room to run. Alphabet (GOOGL) Among Our Good Stocks to Buy Now
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America and other commentary highlighted Alphabet as a long-term AI beneficiary, especially as rising model costs could strengthen demand for Google Cloud and infrastructure. Anthropic’s Priciest AI Model Yet Is Here. Why Alphabet and Amazon Will Benefit.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet sued an alleged Chinese cybercrime group accused of using Google’s AI tools to run scam operations, which shows the company is actively defending its platform but is not likely to move the stock much on its own. Google sues alleged Chinese cybercrime operation that used AI to send scam texts
• Neutral Sentiment: Some investors noted that Altimeter Capital fully exited its Alphabet stake in Q1, but this appears more like portfolio repositioning than a company-specific warning. Billionaire Brad Gerstner Dumped All of His Alphabet Then Bought 2 Stocks Nobody Expected

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $359.68 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $360.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $330.26. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $162.00 and a fifty-two week high of $408.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.44, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.23. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. 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 analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. Equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. DZ Bank reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, February 16th. Barclays reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 29th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. CICC Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $388.00 to $407.91 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Evercore upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $413.13.

About Alphabet

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.