Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Bought by Blue Trust Inc.

Key Points

• Blue Trust Inc. boosted its Alphabet stake by 45.8% in the first quarter, buying an additional 19,352 shares and lifting its total holding to 61,638 shares worth about $17.7 million.
• Alphabet has been getting positive attention from Wall Street and markets, including Jefferies’ Buy rating with a $445 price target and renewed investor enthusiasm after the company joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
• The company also posted strong recent fundamentals, beating Q1 earnings expectations with $5.11 EPS versus $2.64 expected and revenue of $109.9 billion, while raising its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share.

Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 45.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 61,638 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 19,352 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,725,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. 40.03% 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: Alphabet officially joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average, replacing Verizon, which has sparked broad investor buying and index-fund demand. Reuters: Alphabet debuts in Dow Jones Industrial Average as index tilts toward tech
• Positive Sentiment: Several reports note Alphabet’s stock rose on the Dow debut, reflecting renewed investor enthusiasm and momentum around the company’s large-cap tech and AI position. CNBC: Alphabet stock pops 4% on Dow debut, but the tech giant faces major AI questions
• Positive Sentiment: Jefferies reiterated a Buy rating on Alphabet with a $445 price target, suggesting Wall Street still sees meaningful upside despite the recent pullback. Yahoo Finance: Jefferies Maintain a Buy Rating on Alphabet (GOOGL)
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet also gained attention from fresh coverage highlighting its cloud and AI partnerships, including Google Cloud’s collaboration with the Philippine government on AI agents for public services. Yahoo Finance: Alphabet’s Google Cloud Partners with Philippine Government to Deploy AI Agents in Public Services
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also weighing concerns that strong AI demand is being constrained by limited compute capacity, which may cap near-term growth even as demand remains high. Reuters: Google limits Meta's use of its Gemini AI models, FT reports
• Negative Sentiment: Some articles point out that Alphabet has been under pressure recently due to AI-spending concerns and broader weakness in big tech, so the Dow inclusion may be helping offset a weak monthly trend. CNBC: Alphabet stock pops 4% on Dow debut, but the tech giant faces major AI questions

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on GOOGL shares. Freedom Capital lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. HSBC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $420.00 target price (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, China Renaissance raised their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Two investment 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 company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $413.13.

Alphabet Stock Up 4.8%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $353.55 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $4.28 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.97, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.23. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $172.77 and a 12 month high of $408.61. The stock's 50 day moving average is $369.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $333.27. 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 - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $381.00, for a total value of $38,862.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,721 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,132,701. This trade represents a 0.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 151,972 shares of company stock valued at $5,016,958. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

About Alphabet

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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