Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. Ltd. Sells 1,978 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities cut its Alphabet position by 64% in the first quarter, selling 1,978 shares and leaving it with 1,112 shares valued at about $320,000.
• Wall Street remains broadly bullish on Alphabet, with analysts maintaining Buy-like ratings and an average price target of $414.11, above the stock’s recent trading level.
• Alphabet posted strong quarterly results, including EPS of $5.11 versus the $2.64 estimate and revenue of $109.9 billion, and it also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share.

Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. Ltd. decreased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 64.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,112 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,978 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 0.8% of Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. Ltd.'s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. Ltd.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $320,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $52,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $370.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. China Renaissance increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Citigroup reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $414.11.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $346.77 on Friday. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $368.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $337.97. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $183.71 and a fifty-two week high of $408.61. The company has a market capitalization of $4.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.98 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is 6.71%.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains broadly bullish on Alphabet, with multiple reports citing strong cloud growth, AI-driven momentum in Search and YouTube, and price targets still above current trading levels. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts say Alphabet could post a strong Q2, helped by Google Cloud strength and the value of its Anthropic stake, which may support upside if earnings beat expectations. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also positioning for Alphabet’s upcoming earnings report, with options traders expecting a sizable move, indicating that the stock may stay volatile into the release. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Bloomberg-reported delays to Gemini 3.5 Pro have sparked fears that Google is lagging in AI, with concerns that the model’s coding performance fell short of internal goals. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet is facing added regulatory pressure after the EU ordered it to open Android and search data to rival AI companies, and a San Francisco order to remove “nudify” apps from app stores adds to the broader legal overhang. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Securities-fraud investigation headlines are creating an additional near-term overhang, even though these are still allegations and not a proven finding of wrongdoing. Article Title

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total transaction of $39,343.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,833 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,615,656.24. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

About Alphabet

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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