AE Wealth Management LLC Trims Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• AE Wealth Management trimmed its Alphabet stake by 3.6% in Q4, selling 33,095 shares and leaving it with 891,832 shares worth $279.145 million, about 1.6% of the fund's portfolio and its 8th largest holding.
• Alphabet beat Q1 expectations, reporting $5.11 EPS versus $2.64 and $109.9B revenue, powered by ~63% Google Cloud growth and a rising backlog, which helped spur multiple analyst price-target increases and a "Moderate Buy" consensus.
• Corporate actions include a dividend bump to $0.22 quarterly (annualized $0.88, ~0.2% yield; ex-dividend June 8) while insiders sold roughly 191,986 shares in the past three months, reflecting insider liquidity.

AE Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 3.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 891,832 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 33,095 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.6% of AE Wealth Management LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. AE Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $279,145,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $4,338,397,000. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $12,910,542,000 after buying an additional 11,605,785 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 50,732,476 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $12,333,076,000 after buying an additional 6,874,381 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Markets Cayman LP increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 23,402.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Markets Cayman LP now owns 6,118,547 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,487,419,000 after buying an additional 6,092,513 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coatue Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 259.1% in the 3rd quarter. Coatue Management LLC now owns 7,221,115 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,755,453,000 after buying an additional 5,210,434 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $385.69 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 2.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $147.84 and a 1 year high of $386.76. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $313.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $308.26.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.98 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 12.94 earnings per share for the current 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 6.41%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Wolfe Research reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 10th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Evercore lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Rothschild & Co Redburn lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, New Street Research lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $397.48.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 earnings & Google Cloud surge — Alphabet beat on EPS and revenue; Google Cloud grew ~63% to >$20B and backlog jumped near $460B, underpinning earnings momentum and revenue visibility. Alphabet’s Earnings Didn’t Just Beat—They Changed the Story
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street re-rating — Dozens of brokers raised price targets and reiterated buy/outperform views (Goldman, JPMorgan, Citi, Canaccord, etc.), lifting upside expectations and supporting momentum. JPMorgan price target note
• Positive Sentiment: Product & monetization catalysts — Gemini rollout into millions of vehicles and comments about ads in AI-driven Search/Gemini expand potential ad & cloud monetization paths. Google's Gemini hits cars
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial & government demand — The Pentagon signed agreements with leading AI vendors (including Google) to deploy AI tools on classified networks, validating enterprise/government demand for secure AI infrastructure. Pentagon AI agreements
• Positive Sentiment: Market narrative uplift — Coverage arguing Alphabet could challenge Nvidia for top market-cap status and that Google is “winning” the AI cycle is driving momentum flows and investor positioning. Barron's: The First $6 Trillion Company May Not Be Nvidia
• Neutral Sentiment: CapEx trajectory — Management signaled materially higher CapEx into 2027 to support AI/data centers; that supports future growth but raises near-term investment intensity and cash needs. Seeking Alpha: CapEx concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal risk — European scrutiny is rising: Italy asked the EU to investigate Google’s AI search features and Swiss regulators opened probes related to keyword bidding; these could lead to fines, remedies or product constraints. Italy asks EU to investigate Google AI search Switzerland probe

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total value of $10,006,425.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,060 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $505,573,853.40. This represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 617 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,923,235.59. The trade was a 5.76% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 191,986 shares of company stock worth $59,159,207. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

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.

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