Quadrant Capital Group LLC Purchases 7,309 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its Alphabet stake by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, buying 7,309 shares and bringing its total holding to 294,213 shares worth about $92.1 million.
• Alphabet continues to attract major institutional interest, with firms like Norges Bank, Berkshire Hathaway, and Vanguard adding to or initiating large positions; overall, institutions and hedge funds own 40.03% of the stock.
• Wall Street sentiment remains positive: several analysts raised price targets on Alphabet, and the stock recently beat quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $5.11 EPS on $109.9 billion in revenue while also increasing its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share.

Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 294,213 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 7,309 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 2.8% of Quadrant Capital Group LLC's holdings, making the stock its 5th largest position. Quadrant Capital Group LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $92,089,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $30,534,239,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth about $4,338,397,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $165,567,398,000 after buying an additional 12,531,695 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 50,732,476 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $12,333,076,000 after purchasing an additional 6,874,381 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $410.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price 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. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. UBS Group reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Loop Capital increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Two research 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $413.13.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $359.68 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $162.00 and a 52-week high of $408.61. The company has a 50 day moving average of $360.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $330.26. The company has a market capitalization of $4.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.23.

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 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 company had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.71%.

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 Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 617 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owned 2,531 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $995,341.06. This trade represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 193,016 shares of company stock worth $17,282,549. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet 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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