Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Makena Capital Management LLC

Key Points

• Makena Capital Management reduced its Alphabet stake by 29.6% in the fourth quarter, selling 22,859 shares and leaving it with 54,435 shares worth about $17.0 million.
• Other institutional investors were mixed on Alphabet, with several adding shares while hedge fund and institutional ownership still stands at 40.03% of the company.
• Analysts remain broadly positive on GOOGL: the stock has a Moderate Buy consensus with an average price target of $412.65, while Alphabet also reported strong quarterly earnings and raised its dividend to $0.22 per share.

Makena Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 29.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 54,435 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 22,859 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 2.0% of Makena Capital Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Makena Capital Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,038,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $20,886,000 after acquiring an additional 4,110 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,826,000 after acquiring an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 17.6% in the second quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $685,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 11.2% in the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $85,557,000 after acquiring an additional 48,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 6.9% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $8,495,000 after acquiring an additional 3,120 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Mizuho lifted their target price on Alphabet from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $425.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. China Renaissance lifted their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Dbs Bank lifted their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $460.00 in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $412.65.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 955 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total transaction of $284,590.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,955,564. This trade represents a 8.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total value of $2,481,078.77. Following the transaction, the insider owned 51,808 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,293,309.12. This represents a 14.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 226,481 shares of company stock valued at $27,422,061 in the last 90 days. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is testing Gemini-powered Search ads, including conversational and contextual ad formats that could improve monetization and help offset concerns that AI search may weaken its core advertising model.
• Positive Sentiment: Google and CrowdStrike helped take down a botnet targeting open-source software developers, reinforcing Alphabet’s cybersecurity capabilities and its role in defending the broader internet ecosystem.
• Positive Sentiment: Reports around Google I/O and Alphabet’s broader AI lineup, including new Gemini features and AI search tools, suggest the company is still aggressively innovating to defend its leadership in search and advertising.
• Neutral Sentiment: Google’s $15 billion Missouri AI data hub investment highlights long-term infrastructure spending to support AI growth, but the near-term stock impact is likely limited.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet has drawn market focus from traders and analysts, with prediction-market activity suggesting shares may stay near current levels in the short term.
• Negative Sentiment: DuckDuckGo reported rising installs as some users respond negatively to Google’s AI Search overhaul, raising investor concerns that the redesign could push a portion of users toward competitors.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged that one Google AI Search result was “more opinionated than it should be,” underscoring the risk of AI accuracy issues and potential user trust problems.
• Negative Sentiment: Federal prosecutors charged a Google employee with insider trading tied to Polymarket bets, creating a reputational overhang even though the case appears to involve an individual employee rather than core business operations.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $388.83 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $342.73 and a 200 day moving average of $323.73. 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 $4.71 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.26. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $162.00 and a twelve month high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. The company had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.41%.

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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