Alta Advisers Ltd Sells 5,500 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Alta Advisers Ltd cut its Alphabet stake by 23% in the fourth quarter, selling 5,500 shares and leaving it with 18,403 shares valued at about $5.78 million.
• Alphabet is drawing attention for its aggressive AI and cloud spending, including an upsized equity raise of about $84.75 billion and capital expenditure guidance as high as $190 billion, which has raised both growth hopes and dilution concerns.
• The company remains supported by strong fundamentals and analyst sentiment: it recently beat earnings expectations, raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share, and Wall Street still carries an average Buy rating with a target price around $376.

Alta Advisers Ltd lessened its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 23.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 18,403 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 5,500 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 2.0% of Alta Advisers Ltd's holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Alta Advisers Ltd's holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,775,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Imprint Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Towne Trust Company N.A increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 34.0% during the fourth quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 134 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Winnow Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $63,000. Finally, CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 29.0% during the third quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 258 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet continues to show strong AI momentum, including a reported expansion of its Google Cloud partnership with Lovable and reports that Apple may use Google Cloud to help power a revamped Siri. Those deals reinforce demand for Alphabet’s cloud and AI infrastructure. Lovable signs multi-year deal with Google Cloud to up usage 5x, source says
• Positive Sentiment: Investor confidence appears to be supported by major backers, with Berkshire Hathaway and ARK-related buying cited alongside strong analyst interest and price targets near the low-to-mid $400s. That institutional support is helping offset some of the recent weakness. Google Stock Lures in Both Cathie Wood and Berkshire Hathaway as Giant Investors Rush for a Discount
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI spending plan and equity raise remain the biggest focus: the company increased its planned capital raise to about $84.75 billion to fund AI infrastructure, while also guiding capital expenditures as high as $190 billion. Investors see this as a sign of ambition and demand, but also of heavy near-term spending needs. Alphabet to raise $84.75 billion in upsized equity offering to fund AI ambitions
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet also reported strong AI usage trends, including Gemini reaching 900 million users, which supports the long-term growth narrative even as the market debates whether AI returns justify the spending surge. Alphabet’s Gemini AI App Surges to 900 Million Users
• Negative Sentiment: Sentiment was pressured by Alphabet’s massive new equity financing, which raised dilution and return-on-capex questions as the company leans harder into AI buildout. Some investors are worried the AI infrastructure race is becoming too expensive. Google Stock Drops on New Data Center Buildout amid $190B Capex Headache
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI search business also faces new U.K. conduct requirements that let publishers opt out of AI summaries and training use, which could constrain the company’s search monetization and data access over time. UK regulator enforces new competition requirements for Google search
• Negative Sentiment: Reports of quiet layoffs in Google Cloud added to the cautious tone, suggesting Alphabet is still trimming costs even as it ramps spending elsewhere. Google is quietly laying off staff in its cloud division

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. UBS Group reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $348.00 target price (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, April 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $450.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded shares of Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, February 16th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $376.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares in the company, valued at $14,293,309.12. The trade was a 14.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 193,016 shares of company stock worth $17,282,549 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $369.27 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.17, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.22. 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 firm's 50 day moving average is $348.54 and its 200 day moving average is $326.80. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $163.33 and a 12 month high of $404.47.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $2.43. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.96 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. Alphabet's revenue was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.81 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

Alphabet Profile

Alphabet Inc NASDAQ: GOOG is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as "Other Bets." Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company's history.

Alphabet's core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company's ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.

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