Auto Owners Insurance Co Has $5.64 Billion Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Auto Owners Insurance Co dramatically increased its Alphabet stake in Q4 by 38,409.2%, ending with 179.8 million shares valued at about $5.64 billion. Alphabet now represents roughly 1.4% of the insurer’s portfolio and is its 13th-largest holding.
• Alphabet continues to attract bullish institutional and analyst attention, with recent reports pointing to strong Google Cloud growth, improving margins, and a large AI/cloud backlog. Several major firms have also raised price targets, and analysts currently rate the stock a consensus Buy.
• The company posted better-than-expected Q1 results, including $5.11 EPS versus $2.68 expected and revenue of $109.9 billion, up 21.8% year over year. Alphabet also recently increased its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share, while insiders have sold some shares in recent transactions.

Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 38,409.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 179,836,276 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 179,369,280 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 1.4% of Auto Owners Insurance Co's investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Auto Owners Insurance Co owned 1.49% of Alphabet worth $5,643,262,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Imprint Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Towne Trust Company N.A raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 34.0% in the fourth quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 134 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet continues to draw bullish attention as investors highlight accelerating Google Cloud growth, improving margins, and a very large backlog that suggests strong demand for AI and cloud services. Alphabet: Google Cloud Is Outperforming Azure And AWS; $462 Billion Backlog Requires More AI Investments
• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway reportedly increased its Alphabet stake significantly, which is being read as a strong vote of confidence in GOOG’s long-term outlook. Berkshire Hathaway Expands Alphabet (GOOGL) Stake to 58M Shares as Ackman Exits
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s major AI and data-center investments, including a reported $1.5 billion Alabama campus expansion and broader capex plans, are supporting the view that the company is buying future growth. Alphabet (GOOGL) Announces $1.5 Billion Investment Across 2026 And 2027 To Expand Its Alabama Data Center Campus

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $381.00, for a total transaction of $38,862.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,721 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,132,701. The trade was a 0.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the business's 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 160,516 shares of company stock valued at $7,344,604. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $367.46 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $364.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $331.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.03, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.23. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $163.33 and a 52 week high of $404.47.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The firm's revenue was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.81 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.71%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. KeyCorp reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Alphabet from $395.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $376.78.

Alphabet Company 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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