Barr E S & Co. Decreases Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Barr E S & Co. cut its Alphabet stake by 8.9% in the fourth quarter, selling 17,550 shares and leaving it with 180,116 shares worth about $56.4 million.
• Wall Street remains largely upbeat on Alphabet, with analysts assigning an average Moderate Buy rating and a consensus price target of $413.04.
• Recent developments are mostly positive for the company’s AI and cloud push, including a raised $84.75 billion capital plan for AI infrastructure, reports that Apple may use Google Cloud for Siri, and a fresh quarterly dividend increase to $0.22 per share.

Barr E S & Co. reduced its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 8.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 180,116 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 17,550 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 2.9% of Barr E S & Co.'s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Barr E S & Co.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $56,376,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Accredited Investors Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. now owns 19,187 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $6,006,000 after purchasing an additional 1,776 shares during the period. Millennium Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $4,038,000. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan raised its stake in Alphabet by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan now owns 275,275 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $86,161,000 after purchasing an additional 23,838 shares during the period. O Brien Greene & Co. Inc raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. O Brien Greene & Co. Inc now owns 4,520 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,415,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Finally, Stephens Investment Management Group LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 34.7% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 1,750 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $548,000 after purchasing an additional 451 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. China Renaissance lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $393.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Moffett Nathanson upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Tigress Financial set a $415.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $413.04.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet raised its capital plan to $84.75 billion to fund AI infrastructure and cloud capacity, signaling it expects strong demand for compute and is willing to invest heavily to protect and grow its long-term AI position. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Apple reportedly tapped Google Cloud to help power a revamped Siri, which could add a high-profile customer for Alphabet’s cloud business and reinforce its AI infrastructure monetization story. PYMNTS article
• Positive Sentiment: Lovable expanded its multi-year Google Cloud relationship, another sign that Google Cloud is winning AI-related usage and customer growth. TechCrunch article
• Positive Sentiment: Needham reiterated a buy rating and a $450 price target, reflecting continued analyst confidence in Alphabet’s cloud and AI growth potential. Benzinga article
• Neutral Sentiment: Several prominent investors, including Berkshire Hathaway and ARK, were reported as buying Alphabet shares, which supports sentiment but does not change fundamentals on its own. Barron's article
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet also received a softer-than-feared UK antitrust ruling that requires new conduct changes and lets publishers opt out of AI training, which may limit some data use but reduces the risk of a harsher regulatory outcome. Reuters article
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Google is quietly laying off staff in Cloud, including parts of its cybersecurity team, may weigh on sentiment by raising questions about cost discipline and internal restructuring. Business Insider article

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $381.00, for a total transaction of $38,862.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 18,721 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,132,701. This trade represents a 0.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 193,016 shares of company stock worth $17,282,549. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 3.7%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $372.19 on Friday. 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 $4.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $351.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $327.52. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $162.00 and a fifty-two week high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.98 billion. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued 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 is Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.71%.

Alphabet Profile

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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