Davis Selected Advisers Purchases 348,166 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Davis Selected Advisers increased its Alphabet stake by 12.6% in the fourth quarter, buying 348,166 shares and bringing its total holding to 3.12 million shares worth about $976 million.
• Analyst sentiment remains constructive, with multiple firms reaffirming or raising buy ratings and the consensus price target sitting at $411.23. Alphabet is currently trading near $387.66, below its 1-year high of $408.61.
• Alphabet reported strong quarterly results, posting $5.11 EPS versus estimates of $2.64 on revenue of $109.9 billion, and it also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share.

Davis Selected Advisers grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 12.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,118,760 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 348,166 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 4.4% of Davis Selected Advisers' portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Davis Selected Advisers' holdings in Alphabet were worth $976,175,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Kentucky Trust Co grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 142.9% in the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $63,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Pivotal Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Raymond James Financial raised Alphabet from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $405.00 target price (up from $360.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, DZ Bank reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, February 16th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $411.23.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet and Blackstone announced a $5 billion AI infrastructure joint venture to build TPU-powered cloud capacity, which could deepen demand for Google’s custom chips and expand its AI ecosystem. Google, Blackstone to create new AI cloud company, WSJ reports
• Positive Sentiment: Google I/O showcased a broad AI push across Search, Gemini, Workspace, shopping, and video tools, reinforcing the idea that Alphabet is monetizing AI rather than just defending against rivals. Google debuts new AI models, personal AI agents in effort to keep pace with OpenAI and Anthropic
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains constructive, with Arete Research lifting its price target to $425 and maintaining a buy rating, signaling continued upside expectations. Arete Research adjusts price target on Alphabet to $425 from $405
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet said Gemini now has 900 million monthly users and AI Overviews has 2.5 billion monthly users, suggesting its AI products are already reaching scale. Google kicks off I/O conference with AI upgrades for coders, consumers
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet disclosed insider sales by a major shareholder, but the transactions appear routine and are not, by themselves, a strong fundamental signal. SEC filing
• Negative Sentiment: Some investors are uneasy that Google’s AI-heavy search redesign could disrupt the company’s core ad model, especially as the “ten blue links” era fades. Google Search as you know it is over
• Negative Sentiment: There is also headline risk from broader scrutiny around platform responsibility and YouTube youth-safety issues, which may keep some investors cautious. Alphabet’s $5 Trillion Milestone: How AI Ambitions Are Fueling Google’s Record Run

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.00, for a total transaction of $37,842.00. Following the sale, the director owned 18,621 shares in the company, valued at $6,908,391. This represents a 0.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 226,481 shares of company stock valued at $27,422,061. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $387.66 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $333.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $319.32. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $162.00 and a 1-year high of $408.61. The firm has a market cap of $4.70 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. Analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. 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. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 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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