Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. Acquires 2,500 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Adams Diversified Equity Fund increased its Alphabet stake by 2,500 shares in the fourth quarter, bringing its total holding to 535,500 shares worth about $167.6 million. Alphabet now represents roughly 5.6% of the fund’s portfolio and is its fourth-largest position.
• Alphabet continues to draw bullish analyst support, with several firms raising price targets and the stock holding a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. MarketBeat cites an average target price of $413.13.
• The company reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $5.11 versus expectations of $2.64 and revenue of $109.9 billion versus $106.98 billion expected. Alphabet also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share from $0.21.

Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 535,500 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,500 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 5.6% of Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $167,612,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. PMV Capital Advisers LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Kentucky Trust Co raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 142.9% in the 4th quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $53,000. Finally, Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $69,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOGL. Loop Capital increased their target price on Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $393.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Mizuho raised their price target on Alphabet from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Tigress Financial set a $415.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $413.13.

Key Alphabet News

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 Stock Up 0.5%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $359.68 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $162.00 and a 12-month high of $408.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.23. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $360.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $330.26.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS 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 the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be given 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total transaction of $10,006,425.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,060 shares of the company's stock, valued at $505,573,853.40. This represents a 1.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 617 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total value of $178,701.71. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 193,016 shares of company stock valued at $17,282,549 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

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.

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