Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by Geneos Wealth Management Inc.

Key Points

• Geneos Wealth Management reduced its Alphabet stake by 11.8% in Q1, selling 9,875 shares and leaving it with 73,888 shares worth about $21.2 million.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish on Alphabet, with multiple firms raising price targets and the stock carrying an average Buy rating and $383.44 target price.
• Alphabet continues to show strong fundamentals, with Q1 earnings and revenue beating estimates and the company also increasing its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share.

Geneos Wealth Management Inc. trimmed its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 11.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 73,888 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 9,875 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $21,195,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Imprint Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Towne Trust Company N.A raised its holdings in Alphabet by 34.0% during the fourth quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 134 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America and Wedbush remain bullish, with both highlighting strong cloud growth, AI monetization potential, and upside to the stock ahead of earnings. Alphabet could crush estimates on Cloud strength, Anthropic windfall: BofA
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors are still pointing to accelerating Google Search and Google Cloud growth, while retail interest and institutional ownership remain strong ahead of the July 22 report.
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI and cloud businesses remain central to the bullish thesis, with multiple articles noting that the company could benefit from rising AI infrastructure spend and strong earnings expectations.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $395.00 to $460.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. KeyCorp set a $445.00 target price on Alphabet in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Zacks Research raised Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 price target on Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $383.44.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total value of $3,142,911.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 75,290 shares in the company, valued at $26,298,044.10. This trade represents a 10.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total value of $39,343.36. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,833 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,615,656.24. This trade represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 159,415 shares of company stock valued at $7,672,279 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $346.12 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $366.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $336.65. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $184.73 and a 12-month high of $404.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $4.19 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $2.43. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.81 EPS. The company's revenue was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.71%.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc NASDAQ: GOOG is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as "Other Bets." Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company's history.

Alphabet's core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company's ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.

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