HighTower Advisors LLC Decreases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• HighTower Advisors reduced its Alphabet position by 3.1% in the second quarter, selling 116,114 shares and retaining 3.64 million shares valued at approximately $1.30 billion.
• Other major institutions—including Diamant Asset Management, Arrowstreet Capital, Corient, T. Rowe Price and Amundi—expanded their Alphabet holdings; institutional investors collectively own about 40.03% of the company.
• Alphabet reported strong quarterly results, with $119.8 billion in revenue and $9.11 in adjusted earnings per share, while analysts maintain a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $422.16. Growth opportunities in AI chips, Cloud and Waymo are balanced by regulatory restrictions, higher interest rates and heavy AI infrastructure spending.

HighTower Advisors LLC reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 3.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,643,071 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 116,114 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 1.3% of HighTower Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. HighTower Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,301,924,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Diamant Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 28,950.0% in the first quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,291,926 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,671,986,000 after buying an additional 9,259,940 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 90.9% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 17,040,373 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,900,078,000 after purchasing an additional 8,112,680 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 127.9% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 11,677,886 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,655,178,000 after purchasing an additional 6,554,842 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 45.8% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,737,125 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,299,721,000 after purchasing an additional 4,313,745 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi raised its holdings in Alphabet by 12.7% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 31,745,979 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $9,128,850,000 after purchasing an additional 3,574,810 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI chip sales add a new revenue stream: Alphabet began recognizing revenue from sales of its internally developed AI chip systems in the second quarter. Investors may view the business as both a potential growth driver and a way to monetize Google’s technology infrastructure. 2 Stocks to Buy as Google Starts Selling Its AI Chips
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst raises price target: Tigress Financial Partners increased its price target for GOOGL to $485, reflecting confidence in Alphabet’s Search, Cloud, YouTube, Gemini and custom-chip opportunities. Alphabet Price Target Raised to $485
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo expands internationally: Alphabet’s autonomous-driving unit plans to launch an all-electric robotaxi service in Singapore by 2028, strengthening the long-term investment case for Alphabet’s “Other Bets” portfolio. Waymo to Bring Autonomous Ride-Hailing to Singapore
• Positive Sentiment: Options activity signals bullish positioning: Investors purchased roughly 520,000 Alphabet call options, above typical volume, indicating increased speculative interest in further upside.
• Neutral Sentiment: Ad-tech ruling avoids a breakup but imposes restrictions: A federal judge ordered Google to share more auction data with publishers and appoint an antitrust monitor, but rejected a forced breakup. Avoiding structural separation limits the immediate risk to Alphabet’s advertising business, while the behavioral remedies could pressure operations and margins. Tech Watchdogs Criticize Google Adtech Ruling
• Negative Sentiment: Higher rates and AI spending remain risks: The Federal Reserve’s rate increase and Alphabet’s heavy investment in AI infrastructure could keep pressure on free cash flow and valuation, even as Cloud backlog and AI demand remain strong.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $349.54 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.22. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $345.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $344.91. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $235.84 and a fifty-two week high of $408.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a current ratio of 2.72.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent research reports. New Street Research raised their price objective on Alphabet from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Pivotal Research reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $475.00 price target (up from $470.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (down from $445.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating and set a $485.00 price objective (up from $415.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $422.16.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total value of $39,343.36. Following the sale, the director owned 18,833 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,615,656.24. The trade was a 0.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total value of $149,606.80. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 27,386 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,125,015.20. This represents a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 450,875 shares of company stock worth $11,984,482. 11.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet 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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