Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Bought by Freemont Management S.A.

Key Points

• Freemont Management S.A. dramatically increased its Alphabet stake by 1,386% in the fourth quarter, buying 69,300 additional shares. The firm now holds 74,300 shares worth about $23.3 million, making Alphabet its third-largest position.
• Alphabet continues to attract broad institutional interest, with multiple hedge funds adding positions and about 40.03% of the stock owned by institutions. At the same time, insider selling has been notable, with directors and executives selling shares over the past few months.
• The stock remains supported by strong fundamentals and favorable analyst coverage: Alphabet recently beat earnings and revenue estimates, raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share, and Wall Street consensus remains a Moderate Buy with an average price target of $413.33.

Freemont Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1,386.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 74,300 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 69,300 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 4.1% of Freemont Management S.A.'s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Freemont Management S.A.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $23,256,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Kentucky Trust Co boosted its stake in Alphabet by 142.9% during the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth $53,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth $53,000. Finally, Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $69,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway’s $10 billion commitment gives Alphabet a high-profile endorsement and suggests long-term confidence in the company’s AI and cloud strategy. Alphabet plans to raise $80 billion for AI goals, Berkshire to invest $10 billion
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s ownership stakes in major private AI companies like SpaceX and Anthropic could provide hidden upside if those firms eventually go public. Alphabet Stock Offers Exposure To SpaceX, Anthropic Before IPOs: What That Means For Investors
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage of Alphabet’s expanding AI coding, hardware, and consumer-device strategy underscores the company’s push to compete more aggressively, but it does not appear to be the immediate stock-moving catalyst today. Microsoft and Google are late to AI coding, but 'absolutely critical' they compete for growth
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s proposed $80 billion capital raise is raising dilution concerns and signaling much heavier near-term AI capex, which is pressuring the shares. Exclusive: EU cloud rules to curb Amazon, Google access to strategic tenders, draft document shows
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that EU cloud rules could restrict Google’s access to strategic government tenders add another regulatory overhang for the company’s cloud business. Alphabet to raise $80 billion in equity capital for AI spending

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $395.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Argus raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $365.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Loop Capital raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Freedom Capital lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $413.33.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total value of $412,923.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,531 shares in the company, valued at $995,341.06. This trade represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 617 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 225,516 shares of company stock valued at $27,142,399. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $376.37 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.56 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $347.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $325.75. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $162.00 and a 52-week high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its 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%. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 6.71%.

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding GOOGL? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.