Phoenix Financial Ltd. Has $88.14 Million Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Phoenix Financial Ltd. cut its Alphabet stake by 17% in Q4, but still held 273,674 shares worth about $88.1 million at quarter-end.
• Institutional interest remains strong overall, with several firms increasing their positions and hedge funds/institutions owning 40.03% of Alphabet’s stock.
• Alphabet continues to draw upbeat analyst support, with a Moderate Buy consensus and a price target of $413.04, even as investors weigh AI-related spending, dilution concerns, and regulatory risks.

Phoenix Financial Ltd. decreased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 17.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 273,674 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 55,901 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 0.9% of Phoenix Financial Ltd.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Phoenix Financial Ltd.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $88,138,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $416,217,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 887,209 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $277,696,000 after acquiring an additional 93,293 shares during the last quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $5,401,000 after acquiring an additional 4,241 shares during the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 72,608 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $17,652,000 after acquiring an additional 3,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,666,577 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $405,131,000 after acquiring an additional 60,831 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. China Renaissance upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $425.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Roth Mkm reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $413.04.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway’s $10 billion investment signals strong outside confidence in Alphabet’s AI and cloud strategy. Alphabet plans to raise $80 billion for AI goals, Berkshire to invest $10 billion
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentators continue to argue that Alphabet remains a high-margin cash generator with attractive long-term earnings power. Google: AI Skeptics Proven Wrong as Business Booms
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage of Alphabet’s expanding AI coding, hardware, and device strategy highlights broader growth opportunities, but it is not the main driver of today’s move. Microsoft and Google are late to AI coding, but 'absolutely critical' they compete for growth
• Negative Sentiment: The proposed $80 billion stock sale raises dilution concerns and underscores how expensive Alphabet’s AI race has become. Exclusive: EU cloud rules to curb Amazon, Google access to strategic tenders, draft document shows
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that EU cloud rules could restrict Google’s access to strategic government tenders add a regulatory overhang for the cloud business. Alphabet to raise $80 billion in equity capital for AI spending

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total value of $412,923.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,531 shares of the company's stock, valued at $995,341.06. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 617 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at $2,923,235.59. The trade was 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 three months, insiders sold 193,016 shares of company stock valued at $17,282,549. 11.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $361.85 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $162.00 and a 12 month high of $408.61. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $347.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $325.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.38 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.60, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.98 billion. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 6.41%.

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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