Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL is Groupe la Francaise’s 6th Largest Position

Groupe la Francaise increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 15.7% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 742,821 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 100,672 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 2.9% of Groupe la Francaise’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Groupe la Francaise’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $211,373,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. EMC Capital Management bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $52,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co raised its holdings in Alphabet by 142.9% in the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud revenue reportedly increased 82% in the second quarter, with backlog reaching $514 billion, while the Gemini app reached approximately 950 million monthly active users. The results reinforce the commercial demand supporting Alphabet’s AI and cloud investments. Google’s AI business is booming, so why are DeepMind’s biggest names quitting?
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors continue to highlight Alphabet’s strong cash generation, balance sheet and valuation relative to its growth prospects. Some market models see the shares reaching $400 as Cloud momentum and AI monetization continue. Price Prediction: Google Will Hit $400 on This Date
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s expanded Google Cloud partnership with AI lab Mirendil, reportedly worth more than $100 million over multiple years, provides another example of demand for its computing infrastructure. Mirendil Google Cloud deal

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $354.30 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $196.60 and a 52-week high of $408.61. The company has a quick ratio of 2.64, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $4.33 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $355.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $340.41.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4.42%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $515.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $460.00 target price (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $393.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $390.00 price target (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $419.86.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.39, for a total transaction of $27,337.98. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,914 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,305,738.46. The trade was a 0.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 118,138 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.90, for a total transaction of $2,232,808.20. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 600,547 shares of company stock valued at $16,255,540. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.