NFJ Investment Group LLC Has $83.85 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• NFJ Investment Group LLC cut its Alphabet stake by 20.7% in the fourth quarter, selling 69,748 shares and ending with 267,877 shares valued at about $83.85 million. Alphabet remained the fund’s fourth-largest holding and made up roughly 3.0% of its portfolio.
• Other large institutional investors also adjusted their positions, with firms like Vanguard, State Street, Geode, and Norges Bank maintaining or adding significant Alphabet holdings. Overall, institutional investors own 40.03% of Alphabet’s stock.
• Wall Street sentiment remains positive, with several analysts raising price targets and Alphabet carrying a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.13. The company also beat quarterly EPS and revenue estimates and recently increased its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share.

NFJ Investment Group LLC lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 20.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 267,877 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 69,748 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 3.0% of NFJ Investment Group LLC's holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. NFJ Investment Group LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $83,846,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $165,567,398,000 after buying an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after buying an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $45,625,595,000 after buying an additional 2,666,676 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,534,239,000. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,881,908 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $16,865,158,000 after buying an additional 774,336 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google’s legal action against an AI-enabled scam network highlights Alphabet’s role in fighting online fraud and may strengthen trust in its security ecosystem. AI Scam Surge Prompts Google to File Lawsuit
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentary continue to point to Alphabet as a key AI winner, with Gemini, cloud spending, and enterprise demand seen as long-term growth drivers. 3 AI Stocks Poised for Long-Term Gains Despite Strong Year-to-Date Performance
• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway’s increased stake in Alphabet adds a high-profile endorsement and suggests long-term confidence in the stock’s AI and platform value. Berkshire Hathaway's Greg Abel Just Made a Big Bet on Who Will Win the AI Races

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on GOOGL. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. 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 research report on Thursday, April 30th. Phillip Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $340.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $413.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the company'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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 617 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 191,966 shares of company stock worth $16,963,968. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.7%

Alphabet stock opened at $369.35 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $361.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $330.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.17, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.23. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $162.00 and a 52-week high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. 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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