Arax Advisory Partners Takes $27.95 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Arax Advisory Partners opened a new position in Alphabet, buying 89,310 shares valued at about $27.95 million. The stake makes Alphabet its 28th-largest holding and about 0.8% of its portfolio.
• Institutional interest in Alphabet remains strong, with several large investors increasing or initiating positions, including a massive new stake reported for Berkshire Hathaway. The article says hedge funds and other institutional investors own about 40.03% of the stock.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly bullish: multiple firms raised price targets, and Alphabet now carries a Moderate Buy consensus with an average target price of $413.13. The company also recently beat earnings expectations and increased its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share.

Arax Advisory Partners acquired a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 89,310 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $27,954,000. Alphabet comprises about 0.8% of Arax Advisory Partners' portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest position.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth $416,217,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 887,209 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $277,696,000 after acquiring an additional 93,293 shares during the period. Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd as trustee for Retail Employees Superannuation Trust acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $28,902,000. Private Advisory Group LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC now owns 24,717 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $7,736,000 after acquiring an additional 2,678 shares during the period. Finally, Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth $4,338,397,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 617 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,923,235.59. This trade represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 193,016 shares of company stock valued at $17,282,549. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $410.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. KeyCorp restated an "overweight" rating and set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $395.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. CICC Research upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $388.00 to $407.91 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Two 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $413.13.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s drone unit Wing expanded its Walmart partnership into seven more U.S. cities, pushing the service toward nearly 20 markets and signaling that drone delivery is moving from experiment to scalable business. Alphabet's Most Overlooked Division Just Had a Big Week
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo launched a new $29.99 monthly membership program with perks for frequent riders, a move that suggests the robotaxi business is building recurring revenue on top of rapid ride-growth. Waymo launches premier subscription tier for $29.99 a month, starting in select cities
• Positive Sentiment: TD Cowen raised its price target on Alphabet, adding to the bullish analyst backdrop and supporting the view that the stock still has room to run. Alphabet (GOOGL) Among Our Good Stocks to Buy Now
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America and other commentary highlighted Alphabet as a long-term AI beneficiary, especially as rising model costs could strengthen demand for Google Cloud and infrastructure. Anthropic's Priciest AI Model Yet Is Here. Why Alphabet and Amazon Will Benefit.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet sued an alleged Chinese cybercrime group accused of using Google’s AI tools to run scam operations, which shows the company is actively defending its platform but is not likely to move the stock much on its own. Google sues alleged Chinese cybercrime operation that used AI to send scam texts
• Neutral Sentiment: Some investors noted that Altimeter Capital fully exited its Alphabet stake in Q1, but this appears more like portfolio repositioning than a company-specific warning. Billionaire Brad Gerstner Dumped All of His Alphabet Then Bought 2 Stocks Nobody Expected

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $359.68 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $360.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $330.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $162.00 and a 52 week high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. On average, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.71%.

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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