Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stock Holdings Reduced by Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank

Key Points

• Zurcher Kantonalbank reduced its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% in Q4, selling 102,598 shares and now holds 4,124,434 shares worth about $1.29 billion, making GOOGL its sixth-largest position.
• Insiders sold stock this quarter (including John Kent Walker and CEO Sundar Pichai), with total insider sales of 158,553 shares valued at $47.95 million and insiders now owning 11.61% of the company.
• Strong fundamentals and market momentum: Alphabet beat Q1 estimates (EPS $5.11 vs. $2.64; revenue $109.9B vs. $107.0B), raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22, and saw multiple analyst price-target upgrades leaving a consensus "Moderate Buy" and an average target near $406.

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,124,434 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 102,598 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 2.8% of Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank's holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank's holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,290,948,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,826,000 after acquiring an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $685,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $85,557,000 after acquiring an additional 48,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $8,495,000 after acquiring an additional 3,120 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total transaction of $2,481,078.77. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,293,309.12. This trade represents a 14.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total value of $10,006,425.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,060 shares in the company, valued at $505,573,853.40. This represents a 1.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 158,553 shares of company stock valued at $47,951,856 in the last quarter. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $388.46 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $147.84 and a 1 year high of $392.82. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $315.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $309.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.26. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 13.58 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This is a boost 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 6.41%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America upped their target price on Alphabet from $370.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. UBS Group set a $410.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $357.00 to $393.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, HSBC raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $385.00 to $435.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $405.94.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Anthropic reportedly committed to a multiyear, very large cloud deal with Google — a reported $200 billion spend over five years would lock in massive Google Cloud revenue and capacity demand. Anthropic commits to spending $200 billion on Google's cloud and chips, The Information reports
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street momentum: multiple firms raised price targets and reaffirmed buy ratings after strong Q1 (Daiwa, President Capital, New Street, China Renaissance, Citizens/JMP and JPMorgan reaffirmations), supporting upside expectations. Daiwa Securities adjusts price target on Alphabet to $445
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic product/compute move: reports that Google will sell TPUs directly point to a push to capture more AI-infrastructure economics (good for Google Cloud revenue and a competitive play versus NVIDIA). This underpins investor enthusiasm about verticalizing AI stack revenue. Google Moves to Sell TPUs Directly: A Major Shift That Might Pressure NVIDIA's AI Compute Dominance
• Positive Sentiment: Capital markets vote of confidence: Alphabet’s large euro bond sale saw strong demand, easing funding for its AI capex push and signaling solid investor appetite for its balance-sheet strategy. Alphabet taps euro bond market with six-tranche offering
• Positive Sentiment: Operational traction: multiple write-ups note Google Cloud growth outpacing competitors and a rising cloud backlog — supports durable revenue growth above advertising. Alphabet's Google Cloud growth outpaces AWS and Azure
• Neutral Sentiment: U.S. security reviews / stress tests: the U.S. government’s expanded access to unreleased models (including Google/DeepMind) for risk assessments increases scrutiny but could also accelerate standards that favor larger, compliant players. What we know about US stress tests of Google, xAI and Microsoft AI models
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/data-risk flag: a senior Google scientist warned EU proposals to force data-sharing with rivals (e.g., for search) could expose user data — this signals material regulatory risk to Google’s core search model and revenue if rules tighten. Top Google scientist says EU data measures pose privacy risk for users
• Negative Sentiment: Labor and reputational risks: DeepMind/Google AI staff in the UK have voted to unionize and are protesting military-related contracts — potential for workplace disruption and reputational/headline risk during a sensitive regulatory period. UK Google DeepMind employees vote to unionize over its AI military deals
• Negative Sentiment: Traffic-referral implications: Reach PLC reports a drop in digital revenue tied to weaker Google search/referral traffic — a reminder that changes to search/referral dynamics can affect publisher ecosystems (and could presage volatility in search-related monetization trends). Reach revenue falls as Google traffic slump continues to hit digital income
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst downgrade: Freedom Capital cut its rating to “hold,” a counterpoint to multiple buy/rating upgrades and a reminder some firms are taking profits or noting valuation/capex risks. Freedom Capital downgrade to hold (Zacks)

Alphabet Company 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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