Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG

Key Points

• B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG reduced its Alphabet stake by 8.3% in the second quarter, selling 164,053 shares but retaining 1.82 million shares valued at approximately $651.4 million.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish on Alphabet, with a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $420.19. The company also reported quarterly revenue of $119.8 billion, exceeding estimates.
• Alphabet’s growth outlook is supported by strong Google Cloud expansion, AI investments and Waymo’s commercial rollout, though rising AI infrastructure spending, halted buybacks and legal investigations present risks.

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG lowered its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,822,751 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 164,053 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 5.6% of B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG's holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG's holdings in Alphabet were worth $651,397,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 45,394,474 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $14,208,470,000 after buying an additional 208,362 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 38,106,033 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $11,927,189,000 after acquiring an additional 583,078 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in Alphabet by 12.7% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 31,745,979 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $9,128,850,000 after acquiring an additional 3,574,810 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 29,166,806 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $9,129,210,000 after acquiring an additional 478,848 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 21,851,279 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $6,839,450,000 after acquiring an additional 2,729,364 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Arete Research boosted their price target on Alphabet from $405.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $400.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $420.19.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 118,138 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.90, for a total transaction of $2,232,808.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.71, for a total transaction of $27,692.22. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,995 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,414,801.45. The trade was a 0.43% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 450,875 shares of company stock valued at $11,984,482. 11.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud remains a major growth catalyst. Alphabet’s cloud backlog reportedly reached $514 billion after second-quarter revenue growth of 82%, reinforcing expectations that Cloud could become a larger long-term earnings driver alongside Search. Alphabet cloud backlog article
• Positive Sentiment: AI concerns are benefiting Alphabet relative to some peers. Alphabet and Meta have attracted investor interest even as concerns about excessive frontier-model spending weigh on parts of the technology sector. A possible slowdown could favor established platforms with strong cash flows, distribution and proprietary infrastructure. Google and Meta AI concerns article
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo is expanding commercially. Alphabet’s autonomous-driving unit has begun offering robotaxi rides to the general public in Las Vegas, its first Nevada market, expanding a potential future growth business. Waymo Las Vegas article
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is broadening its AI ecosystem. Giving engineers access to Anthropic’s Claude may improve coding productivity and reflects Alphabet’s investment exposure to Anthropic, although Claude also competes with Google’s own AI models. Google Claude access article
• Neutral Sentiment: Technical momentum is improving. Stockton believes Alphabet may be emerging from its multi-month correction, while recent commentary highlights its cloud position, YouTube scale and custom AI chips as potential competitive advantages.
• Negative Sentiment: AI infrastructure spending is pressuring capital returns. Reports say Alphabet has halted buybacks, its share count is rising and debt has increased as it funds data centers, energy contracts and AI capacity. Local opposition to new data centers could also raise costs or delay projects. Big Tech buybacks article
• Negative Sentiment: Investor sentiment faces legal overhang. Multiple law firms are publicizing securities-fraud investigations involving Alphabet. These announcements do not establish wrongdoing but could add volatility and potential litigation risk. Alphabet securities investigation article

Alphabet Stock Up 3.2%

GOOGL stock opened at $349.39 on Tuesday. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $346.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $344.15. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $235.84 and a fifty-two week high of $408.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a current ratio of 2.72. The company has a market cap of $4.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.22.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%.The business had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.07 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th were issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 4th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4.42%.

Alphabet Profile

Alphabet Inc is a technology and holding company founded in 2015 through a restructuring of Google. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and operates globally, serving consumers, businesses, advertisers and developers across numerous countries and regions.

Alphabet's largest business is Google Services, which includes Google Search, online advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and hardware products such as Pixel devices. These products support activities including internet search, digital content distribution, mobile computing, online communications and advertising.

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