Ameritas Advisory Services LLC Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Ameritas Advisory Services LLC increased its Alphabet stake by 241.5% in the fourth quarter, ending with 68,191 shares worth about $21.3 million.
• Alphabet reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $5.11 versus expectations of $2.64 and revenue of $109.9 billion, topping analyst estimates.
• The company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share from $0.21, and recent analyst coverage remains broadly positive with an average Moderate Buy rating and a $412.94 target price.

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 241.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 68,191 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 48,220 shares during the period. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $21,344,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Alphabet by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its position in Alphabet by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Alphabet by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 50,732,476 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $12,333,076,000 after purchasing an additional 6,874,381 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Alphabet by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 45,186,112 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,984,744,000 after purchasing an additional 1,034,292 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $380.34 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $345.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $325.15. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $162.00 and a 1 year high of $408.61. The stock has a market cap of $4.61 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.23.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.98 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 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 paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.41%.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud reported standout Q1’26 results, with revenue up 63% to $20 billion, a 32.9% margin, and a backlog that reached $462 billion, suggesting strong demand and improving profitability. GOOGL Rides on Surging Google Cloud Demand: More Upside Ahead?
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet and Blackstone announced a partnership to build 500MW of U.S. data center capacity by 2027, underscoring Alphabet’s push to monetize TPU-powered AI compute as a service. Google and Blackstone partner on TPU-powered data centre capacity
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s buy rating was reaffirmed by Barclays, adding to the bullish analyst tone around the stock. Alphabet Class A (GOOGL) Gets a Buy from Cantor Fitzgerald
• Positive Sentiment: Reuters reported that EQT partnered with Google Cloud to accelerate AI adoption across more than 300 portfolio companies, reinforcing Alphabet’s enterprise AI momentum. Private equity firm EQT partners with Google Cloud for AI rollout
• Neutral Sentiment: Waymo continued expanding its robotaxi fleet with lower-cost vehicles and new rider access, which supports Alphabet’s optionality in autonomous driving but is not an immediate earnings driver. Waymo opens Ojai robotaxis to select riders as company aims to lower cost of fleet expansion
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet is facing fresh reputational and legal pressure after U.S. prosecutors charged a Google engineer in a Polymarket insider-trading case, and an Indian court ruling raised trademark-related ad risk. Indian court ruling on Google keyword ads could reshape online advertising
• Negative Sentiment: Some commentary also suggested Alphabet could face pressure as AI rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic raise larger funding war chests, keeping competition concerns in focus. Anthropic Leapfrogs OpenAI In Valuation. But Here's One Thing To Know.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on 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 directly owned 2,531 shares in the company, valued at $995,341.06. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total transaction of $9,859,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,674,560 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $508,028,012.80. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 226,369 shares of company stock worth $27,388,127. Insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Guggenheim reissued a "buy" rating and set a $450.00 target price (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Arete Research boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $405.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. DZ Bank reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, February 16th. Phillip Securities boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $340.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $370.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $412.94.

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.

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