Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Has $115.45 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC reduced its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 81.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 368,852 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,601,980 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 2.6% of Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $115,451,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after acquiring an additional 12,531,695 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Alphabet by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,625,595,000 after purchasing an additional 2,666,676 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,534,239,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 69,108,183 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $21,630,861,000 after purchasing an additional 3,218,852 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is being viewed as a major AI winner thanks to ongoing investment in AI infrastructure and data centers, which could support future cloud and AI revenue growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Berkshire Hathaway nearly tripled its Alphabet position may be seen as a strong vote of confidence from a major long-term investor. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage emphasizing Alphabet’s strong earnings and expanding Google Cloud backlog supports the case for continued fundamental improvement. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s stock is drawing increased investor attention and analyst commentary, but these are mostly sentiment-driven mentions rather than new company-specific catalysts. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Noam Shazeer, a top Google DeepMind/Gemini AI leader, is leaving for OpenAI, underscoring the competitive AI talent war. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: John Jumper is also departing Google DeepMind for Anthropic, adding to concerns that Alphabet may be losing key AI researchers. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo’s recall of nearly 3,900 robotaxis after construction-zone driving errors raises safety and regulatory concerns for Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle business. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: The UK ordering Google to improve search-ranking transparency highlights continued regulatory scrutiny over its core search business. Article Title

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $368.48 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $367.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $331.95. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $162.00 and a 52-week high of $408.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The company had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total value of $412,923.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $995,341.06. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares in the company, valued at $14,293,309.12. This represents a 14.79% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 160,516 shares of company stock valued at $7,344,604. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Arete Research lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $405.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Two research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $413.13.

Alphabet Company 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.