Geneos Wealth Management Inc. Sells 3,884 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Geneos Wealth Management trimmed its Alphabet stake by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, selling 3,884 shares and ending with 83,349 shares valued at about $26.1 million.
• Several analysts remain constructive on Alphabet, with recent price-target changes ranging from $350 to $450 and MarketBeat showing an overall Moderate Buy consensus with an average target of $407.86.
• Alphabet reported strong quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue expectations, and also announced a higher quarterly dividend of $0.22 per share, up from $0.21.

Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lessened its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 83,349 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 3,884 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $26,088,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $40,524,841,000 after buying an additional 4,008,374 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $12,910,542,000 after buying an additional 11,605,785 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 15.7% in the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 50,732,476 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $12,333,076,000 after buying an additional 6,874,381 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 45,186,112 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,984,744,000 after buying an additional 1,034,292 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 39,250,829 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $9,541,877,000 after buying an additional 392,547 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wolfe Research dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Moffett Nathanson boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the company 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 company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Guggenheim reissued a "buy" rating and set a $450.00 price objective (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $407.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.00, for a total value of $37,842.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total transaction of $2,481,078.77. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 158,553 shares of company stock valued at $47,951,856 in the last quarter. Insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet briefly surpassed NVIDIA in market value, highlighting renewed investor confidence in its AI strategy and earnings strength. Alphabet Is on the Brink of Beating NVIDIA in Market Value: ETFs to Buy
• Positive Sentiment: Google said it likely thwarted an AI-generated zero-day exploit, underscoring the strength of its cybersecurity capabilities and AI threat-detection tools. Google says it likely thwarted effort by hacker group to use AI for 'mass exploitation event'
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is expanding Google Finance into Europe as part of its AI-focused product rollout, supporting the case for continued AI-driven innovation across its ecosystem. Google Finance Continues AI-Focused Expansion With EU Launch
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet is planning its first yen-denominated bond offering to help fund rising AI infrastructure spending, adding to its recent debt raises in other currencies. Alphabet considers first yen bond sale to fund AI goals
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports that short interest increased were based on zero shares reported, so they do not appear to provide meaningful directional signal for GOOGL.
• Negative Sentiment: The U.S. Commerce Department removed details from a public page about AI security testing involving Google, Microsoft, and xAI, which could raise mild regulatory transparency questions. Microsoft, Google, xAI security test details deleted from US government website

Alphabet Stock Down 3.0%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $388.64 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $156.16 and a 12 month high of $402.00. The stock has a market cap of $4.71 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 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. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $322.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $313.71.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.98 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 6.41%.

Alphabet Company 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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