First Eagle Investment Management LLC Decreases Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• First Eagle Investment Management reduced its Alphabet stake by 47.1% in the fourth quarter, selling about 1.54 million shares and leaving it with 1.73 million shares worth roughly $540.9 million.
• Alphabet reported strong quarterly earnings, with EPS of $5.11 beating estimates and revenue of $109.9 billion topping expectations, while the company also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share.
• Despite some insider selling and legal/reputational headwinds, Wall Street remains broadly bullish: analysts give Alphabet a Moderate Buy rating on average, with a consensus price target of $412.94.

First Eagle Investment Management LLC cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 47.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,727,965 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,540,899 shares during the quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $540,853,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $165,567,398,000 after buying an additional 12,531,695 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 50,732,476 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $12,333,076,000 after purchasing an additional 6,874,381 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 45,186,112 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,984,744,000 after purchasing an additional 1,034,292 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 51,808 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,293,309.12. The trade was a 14.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total transaction of $412,923.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $995,341.06. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 226,481 shares of company stock worth $27,422,061. 11.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.5%

GOOGL stock opened at $380.34 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.61 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.01, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.26. 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 firm's 50 day moving average price is $345.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $324.91. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $162.00 and a one year high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 6.41%.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud reported standout Q1’26 results, with revenue up 63% to $20 billion, a 32.9% margin, and a backlog that reached $462 billion, suggesting strong demand and improving profitability. GOOGL Rides on Surging Google Cloud Demand: More Upside Ahead?
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet and Blackstone announced a partnership to build 500MW of U.S. data center capacity by 2027, underscoring Alphabet’s push to monetize TPU-powered AI compute as a service. Google and Blackstone partner on TPU-powered data centre capacity
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s buy rating was reaffirmed by Barclays, adding to the bullish analyst tone around the stock. Alphabet Class A (GOOGL) Gets a Buy from Cantor Fitzgerald
• Positive Sentiment: Reuters reported that EQT partnered with Google Cloud to accelerate AI adoption across more than 300 portfolio companies, reinforcing Alphabet’s enterprise AI momentum. Private equity firm EQT partners with Google Cloud for AI rollout
• Neutral Sentiment: Waymo continued expanding its robotaxi fleet with lower-cost vehicles and new rider access, which supports Alphabet’s optionality in autonomous driving but is not an immediate earnings driver. Waymo opens Ojai robotaxis to select riders as company aims to lower cost of fleet expansion
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet is facing fresh reputational and legal pressure after U.S. prosecutors charged a Google engineer in a Polymarket insider-trading case, and an Indian court ruling raised trademark-related ad risk. Indian court ruling on Google keyword ads could reshape online advertising
• Negative Sentiment: Some commentary also suggested Alphabet could face pressure as AI rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic raise larger funding war chests, keeping competition concerns in focus. Anthropic Leapfrogs OpenAI In Valuation. But Here's One Thing To Know.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on GOOGL. DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Citizens Jmp reissued a "market outperform" rating and issued a $515.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Tigress Financial set a $415.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Argus raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $365.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Freedom Capital lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $412.94.

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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