N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC Acquires 1,318 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 37.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,868 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,318 shares during the period. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,524,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $416,217,000. Sovran Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 23.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,401,000 after buying an additional 4,241 shares in the last quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 21.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 50,064 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,171,000 after buying an additional 8,746 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its stake in Alphabet by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,666,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $405,131,000 after buying an additional 60,831 shares during the period. Finally, Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 5.4% in the third quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 72,608 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,652,000 after acquiring an additional 3,740 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet briefly surpassed NVIDIA in market value, highlighting renewed investor confidence in its AI strategy and earnings strength. Alphabet Is on the Brink of Beating NVIDIA in Market Value: ETFs to Buy
• Positive Sentiment: Google said it likely thwarted an AI-generated zero-day exploit, underscoring the strength of its cybersecurity capabilities and AI threat-detection tools. Google says it likely thwarted effort by hacker group to use AI for ‘mass exploitation event’
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is expanding Google Finance into Europe as part of its AI-focused product rollout, supporting the case for continued AI-driven innovation across its ecosystem. Google Finance Continues AI-Focused Expansion With EU Launch
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet is planning its first yen-denominated bond offering to help fund rising AI infrastructure spending, adding to its recent debt raises in other currencies. Alphabet considers first yen bond sale to fund AI goals
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports that short interest increased were based on zero shares reported, so they do not appear to provide meaningful directional signal for GOOGL.
• Negative Sentiment: The U.S. Commerce Department removed details from a public page about AI security testing involving Google, Microsoft, and xAI, which could raise mild regulatory transparency questions. Microsoft, Google, xAI security test details deleted from US government website

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total value of $284,590.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares in the company, valued at $2,955,564. The trade was a 8.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.65, for a total transaction of $348,232.50. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,187,638.65. This represents a 22.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 158,553 shares of company stock worth $47,951,856 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Arete Research raised their price objective on Alphabet from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Moffett Nathanson increased their target price on Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Evercore lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $385.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $407.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $388.64 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $322.04 and a 200 day moving average of $313.71. The company has a market capitalization of $4.71 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.64, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.26. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $156.16 and a 12 month high of $402.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

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.