Evernest Financial Advisors LLC Sells 1,464 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Evernest Financial Advisors LLC cut its Alphabet stake by 8.7% in the fourth quarter, selling 1,464 shares and leaving it with 15,366 shares valued at about $4.98 million.
• Alphabet continues to draw strong institutional and analyst support: 40.03% of shares are institutionally owned, and the consensus rating remains Moderate Buy with a $413.13 price target.
• The company recently beat quarterly earnings expectations, posting $5.11 EPS on $109.9 billion in revenue, while also raising its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share.

Evernest Financial Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 8.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,366 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,464 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.1% of Evernest Financial Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest position. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,984,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth $416,217,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 887,209 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $277,696,000 after buying an additional 93,293 shares in the last quarter. Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd as trustee for Retail Employees Superannuation Trust acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $28,902,000. Private Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC now owns 24,717 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $7,736,000 after buying an additional 2,678 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth $4,338,397,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOGL. Daiwa Securities Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Guggenheim reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $450.00 price objective (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Freedom Capital cut shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $413.13.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google’s legal action against an AI-enabled scam network highlights Alphabet’s role in fighting online fraud and may strengthen trust in its security ecosystem. AI Scam Surge Prompts Google to File Lawsuit
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentary continue to point to Alphabet as a key AI winner, with Gemini, cloud spending, and enterprise demand seen as long-term growth drivers. 3 AI Stocks Poised for Long-Term Gains Despite Strong Year-to-Date Performance
• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway’s increased stake in Alphabet adds a high-profile endorsement and suggests long-term confidence in the stock’s AI and platform value. Berkshire Hathaway's Greg Abel Just Made a Big Bet on Who Will Win the AI Races

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $369.35 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.23. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $361.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $330.66. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $162.00 and a 12 month high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 617 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the company's 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 directly owned 51,808 shares in the company, valued at $14,293,309.12. This trade represents a 14.79% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 191,966 shares of company stock valued at $16,963,968. 11.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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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