Draper Asset Management LLC Trims Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Draper Asset Management reduced its Alphabet stake by 1.7% in the second quarter, selling 1,747 shares and retaining 98,482 shares valued at approximately $35.2 million. Alphabet remains the firm’s second-largest holding and represents 17.8% of its portfolio.
• Alphabet reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $9.11 beating estimates of $2.89 and revenue of $119.8 billion exceeding expectations. Analysts maintain a consensus “Buy” rating with an average price target of $420.19.
• Alphabet’s growth outlook is supported by accelerating Google Cloud demand, AI investments and Waymo’s expansion, but higher AI infrastructure spending, reduced buybacks and potential legal risks remain concerns for investors.

Draper Asset Management LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 98,482 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,747 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 17.8% of Draper Asset Management LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Draper Asset Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $35,194,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MBA Advisors LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. MBA Advisors LLC now owns 9,621 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,438,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. Emergent Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the second quarter. Emergent Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,486 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,300,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Firestone Capital Management grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. Firestone Capital Management now owns 6,394 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,285,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC now owns 7,806 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,789,000 after buying an additional 226 shares during the period. Finally, Resolute Advisors LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Resolute Advisors LLC now owns 7,300 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,609,000 after buying an additional 102 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.71, for a total value of $27,692.22. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,995 shares in the company, valued at $6,414,801.45. The trade was a 0.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 118,138 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.90, for a total transaction of $2,232,808.20. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 450,875 shares of company stock valued at $11,984,482 over the last quarter. 11.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud remains a major growth catalyst. Alphabet’s cloud backlog reportedly reached $514 billion after second-quarter revenue growth of 82%, reinforcing expectations that Cloud could become a larger long-term earnings driver alongside Search. Alphabet cloud backlog article
• Positive Sentiment: AI concerns are benefiting Alphabet relative to some peers. Alphabet and Meta have attracted investor interest even as concerns about excessive frontier-model spending weigh on parts of the technology sector. A possible slowdown could favor established platforms with strong cash flows, distribution and proprietary infrastructure. Google and Meta AI concerns article
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo is expanding commercially. Alphabet’s autonomous-driving unit has begun offering robotaxi rides to the general public in Las Vegas, its first Nevada market, expanding a potential future growth business. Waymo Las Vegas article
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is broadening its AI ecosystem. Giving engineers access to Anthropic’s Claude may improve coding productivity and reflects Alphabet’s investment exposure to Anthropic, although Claude also competes with Google’s own AI models. Google Claude access article
• Neutral Sentiment: Technical momentum is improving. Stockton believes Alphabet may be emerging from its multi-month correction, while recent commentary highlights its cloud position, YouTube scale and custom AI chips as potential competitive advantages.
• Negative Sentiment: AI infrastructure spending is pressuring capital returns. Reports say Alphabet has halted buybacks, its share count is rising and debt has increased as it funds data centers, energy contracts and AI capacity. Local opposition to new data centers could also raise costs or delay projects. Big Tech buybacks article
• Negative Sentiment: Investor sentiment faces legal overhang. Multiple law firms are publicizing securities-fraud investigations involving Alphabet. These announcements do not establish wrongdoing but could add volatility and potential litigation risk. Alphabet securities investigation article

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $349.39 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.22. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $235.84 and a 52 week high of $408.61. The company has a quick ratio of 2.64, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $346.41 and a 200 day moving average of $344.15.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. The business had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 4th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 4.42%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on GOOGL. Pivotal Research reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $475.00 price objective (up from $470.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. HSBC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $420.00 target price (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Arete Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $405.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $420.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $420.19.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is a technology and holding company founded in 2015 through a restructuring of Google. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and operates globally, serving consumers, businesses, advertisers and developers across numerous countries and regions.

Alphabet's largest business is Google Services, which includes Google Search, online advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and hardware products such as Pixel devices. These products support activities including internet search, digital content distribution, mobile computing, online communications and advertising.

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