Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Principal Financial Group reduced its Alphabet stake by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, selling 210,142 shares but still holding 11.0 million shares worth about $3.46 billion.
• Alphabet continues to draw mostly positive attention from analysts and news flow, helped by strong Q1 earnings, accelerating Google Cloud growth, and new AI-driven products including search features, agent tools, and AI glasses.
• Despite the bullish AI and earnings narrative, Alphabet still faces notable risks from antitrust litigation and operational issues at Waymo, which recently paused service in some areas after safety concerns.

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 11,047,927 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 210,142 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 1.8% of Principal Financial Group Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.09% of Alphabet worth $3,458,007,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $416,217,000. Sovran Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 23.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,401,000 after purchasing an additional 4,241 shares during the last quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 21.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 50,064 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $12,171,000 after purchasing an additional 8,746 shares during the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 72,608 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $17,652,000 after purchasing an additional 3,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,666,577 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $405,131,000 after purchasing an additional 60,831 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s Q1 results were highlighted as one of the strongest among the Mag 7, with Google Cloud showing accelerating sales growth and broader AI momentum helping investor sentiment. Alphabet and NVIDIA: The Biggest Mag 7 Winners This Earnings Season
• Positive Sentiment: Google’s I/O announcements continued to reinforce Alphabet’s AI story, including new AI search experiences, agent tools, and upcoming AI glasses that suggest the company is expanding beyond traditional search. We tried Google's AI glasses and they're almost there
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive on the stock, with multiple firms reiterating positive views and new AI ad formats seen as potentially boosting conversions and monetization in Search and Commerce. Alphabet's new AI ad formats seen boosting conversions and spending
• Positive Sentiment: Google unveiled a $15 billion Missouri data center investment, underscoring continued capital spending to support AI infrastructure and cloud demand. Google Unveils $15 Billion Missouri Data Center Investment
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles discussed Google’s revamped AI-driven search experience and agent ecosystem, which are strategically important but still too early to measure their near-term financial impact. Google is pitching an AI agent ecosystem to consumers who may not buy it
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo temporarily suspended service in multiple cities after robotaxis drove into flooded roads, adding another safety and execution concern for Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle unit. Waymo suspends freeway rides, pauses Atlanta operations amid safety fixes
• Negative Sentiment: Google’s appeal of the antitrust ruling remains the biggest overhang, since a loss or forced remedies could eventually weigh on the company’s core search and advertising economics. Google appeals US court ruling on search monopoly

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on GOOGL. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday. CICC Research upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $388.00 to $407.91 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $393.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $412.65.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.2%

Alphabet stock opened at $382.97 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $162.00 and a 1-year high of $408.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.64 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.26. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $337.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $321.26. 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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. The company had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company 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 $0.22 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 6.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 completion of the sale, the director owned 2,531 shares in the company, 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 SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.00, for a total transaction of $37,842.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,621 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,908,391. This represents a 0.54% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 226,481 shares of company stock valued at $27,422,061 over the last 90 days. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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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