Icon Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Icon Wealth Advisors LLC increased its Alphabet stake by 4.1% in the fourth quarter, buying 2,244 shares to bring its total holdings to 56,417 shares worth about $17.6 million.
• Several other institutional investors also raised their positions, and hedge funds and other institutions now own about 40.03% of Alphabet’s stock.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish on Alphabet, with a consensus Moderate Buy rating and an average price target of $413.13; recent reports also lifted targets to as high as $425.

Icon Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 4.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 56,417 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,244 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 1.2% of Icon Wealth Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest position. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,561,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Knollwood Investment Advisory LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Knollwood Investment Advisory LLC now owns 55,393 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $17,338,000 after acquiring an additional 733 shares during the period. LRT Capital Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. LRT Capital Management LLC now owns 10,280 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,218,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares during the period. Clarity Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 29.2% during the fourth quarter. Clarity Asset Management Inc. now owns 442 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $138,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,010,000. Finally, DE Burlo Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 583.7% during the fourth quarter. DE Burlo Group Inc. now owns 143,749 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $44,993,000 after acquiring an additional 122,725 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on GOOGL shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Alphabet from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen raised Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Evercore boosted their price target on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Arete Research boosted their price target on Alphabet from $405.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Roth Mkm reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $413.13.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s drone unit Wing expanded its Walmart partnership into seven more U.S. cities, pushing the service toward nearly 20 markets and signaling that drone delivery is moving from experiment to scalable business. Alphabet's Most Overlooked Division Just Had a Big Week
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo launched a new $29.99 monthly membership program with perks for frequent riders, a move that suggests the robotaxi business is building recurring revenue on top of rapid ride-growth. Waymo launches premier subscription tier for $29.99 a month, starting in select cities
• Positive Sentiment: TD Cowen raised its price target on Alphabet, adding to the bullish analyst backdrop and supporting the view that the stock still has room to run. Alphabet (GOOGL) Among Our Good Stocks to Buy Now
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America and other commentary highlighted Alphabet as a long-term AI beneficiary, especially as rising model costs could strengthen demand for Google Cloud and infrastructure. Anthropic's Priciest AI Model Yet Is Here. Why Alphabet and Amazon Will Benefit.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet sued an alleged Chinese cybercrime group accused of using Google’s AI tools to run scam operations, which shows the company is actively defending its platform but is not likely to move the stock much on its own. Google sues alleged Chinese cybercrime operation that used AI to send scam texts
• Neutral Sentiment: Some investors noted that Altimeter Capital fully exited its Alphabet stake in Q1, but this appears more like portfolio repositioning than a company-specific warning. Billionaire Brad Gerstner Dumped All of His Alphabet Then Bought 2 Stocks Nobody Expected

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total transaction of $412,923.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,531 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $995,341.06. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total value of $2,481,078.77. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,293,309.12. This trade represents a 14.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 191,966 shares of company stock valued at $16,963,968. 11.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $359.68 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $162.00 and a one year high of $408.61. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $360.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $330.34. The stock has a market cap of $4.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.23.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

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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