AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC Buys 1,363 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• AssuredPartners Investment Advisors increased its Alphabet stake by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, buying 1,363 additional shares and bringing its total to 45,895 shares valued at about $14.4 million.
• Alphabet continues to draw positive attention from analysts and investors, with strong Q1 results, accelerating Google Cloud growth, and ongoing AI initiatives helping support sentiment. Several firms recently raised price targets, and the consensus rating remains Moderate Buy.
• Despite the upbeat outlook, Alphabet still faces notable risks, including an ongoing antitrust appeal and execution concerns at Waymo after the robotaxi unit temporarily suspended service in some cities.

AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,895 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,363 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 2.1% of AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $14,365,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 1,578,043 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $493,927,000 after purchasing an additional 17,828 shares during the last quarter. Red Crane Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 29.5% in the 4th quarter. Red Crane Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,695 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $531,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 320,492 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $100,314,000 after purchasing an additional 17,725 shares during the last quarter. Garner Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Garner Asset Management Corp now owns 6,220 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,947,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Liberty Atlantic Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $582,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s Q1 results were highlighted as one of the strongest among the Mag 7, with Google Cloud showing accelerating sales growth and broader AI momentum helping investor sentiment. Alphabet and NVIDIA: The Biggest Mag 7 Winners This Earnings Season
• Positive Sentiment: Google’s I/O announcements continued to reinforce Alphabet’s AI story, including new AI search experiences, agent tools, and upcoming AI glasses that suggest the company is expanding beyond traditional search. We tried Google's AI glasses and they're almost there
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive on the stock, with multiple firms reiterating positive views and new AI ad formats seen as potentially boosting conversions and monetization in Search and Commerce. Alphabet's new AI ad formats seen boosting conversions and spending
• Positive Sentiment: Google unveiled a $15 billion Missouri data center investment, underscoring continued capital spending to support AI infrastructure and cloud demand. Google Unveils $15 Billion Missouri Data Center Investment
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles discussed Google’s revamped AI-driven search experience and agent ecosystem, which are strategically important but still too early to measure their near-term financial impact. Google is pitching an AI agent ecosystem to consumers who may not buy it
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo temporarily suspended service in multiple cities after robotaxis drove into flooded roads, adding another safety and execution concern for Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle unit. Waymo suspends freeway rides, pauses Atlanta operations amid safety fixes
• Negative Sentiment: Google’s appeal of the antitrust ruling remains the biggest overhang, since a loss or forced remedies could eventually weigh on the company’s core search and advertising economics. Google appeals US court ruling on search monopoly

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $410.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $450.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $425.00 target price (up from $395.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $405.00 target price (up from $360.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note 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 assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $412.65.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total transaction of $2,481,078.77. Following the sale, the insider owned 51,808 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,293,309.12. The trade was a 14.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 226,481 shares of company stock worth $27,422,061 over the last three months. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $382.97 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $162.00 and a 12-month high of $408.61. The company has a market capitalization of $4.64 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.26. 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's fifty day moving average price is $337.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $321.52.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a positive change 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 6.41%.

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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