KCM Investment Advisors LLC Trims Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• KCM Investment Advisors LLC trimmed its Alphabet stake by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, selling 4,288 shares and leaving it with 272,422 shares valued at about $85.3 million.
• Despite some portfolio trimming, institutional ownership remains significant, with investors holding about 40.03% of Alphabet’s stock, while several other funds initiated or increased positions during the period.
• Alphabet continues to get bullish support from analysts and business developments, including multiple price-target hikes, strong quarterly earnings, a small dividend increase, and growth in key units like Wing and Waymo.

KCM Investment Advisors LLC decreased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 272,422 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 4,288 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 2.7% of KCM Investment Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. KCM Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $85,268,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. Kentucky Trust Co lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 142.9% during the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $53,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

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 Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the firm'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 transaction of $2,481,078.77. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 51,808 shares in the company, valued at $14,293,309.12. The trade was a 14.79% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 191,966 shares of company stock valued at $16,963,968 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Evercore increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Tigress Financial set a $415.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $395.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $413.13.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $359.68 on Monday. The firm 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $162.00 and a fifty-two week high of $408.61. The company's 50-day moving average price is $360.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $330.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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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