Skylands Capital LLC Has $42.09 Million Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Skylands Capital LLC slightly reduced its Alphabet stake by 1.3% in the first quarter, but it still held 146,360 shares worth about $42.1 million. Alphabet remains its second-largest holding and makes up 5.5% of the portfolio.
• Institutional interest in Alphabet remains strong, with major investors like Vanguard, State Street, and Geode adding to positions. About 40% of Alphabet shares are owned by institutional investors.
• Analysts remain broadly positive despite regulatory headwinds, as several firms lifted price targets and Alphabet posted a strong quarterly beat on earnings and revenue. However, EU antitrust rulings and other legal decisions continue to create pressure on the stock.

Skylands Capital LLC trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 146,360 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,940 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 5.5% of Skylands Capital LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Skylands Capital LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $42,087,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $40,524,841,000 after acquiring an additional 4,008,374 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $45,625,595,000 after acquiring an additional 2,666,676 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $30,534,239,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 69,108,183 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $21,630,861,000 after acquiring an additional 3,218,852 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Several recent stories highlight Alphabet’s AI and cloud momentum, including Google Cloud traction with enterprise customers like Jack Henry and growing use of Google’s cloud tech by Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo, which supports the bull case for future growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Jim Cramer argued that Alphabet still looks cheap, reinforcing a valuation-supportive narrative for GOOGL after its pullback. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street sentiment remains constructive, with Wells Fargo keeping an overweight rating and multiple analysts maintaining buy recommendations, which may help support the stock. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s insider selling by John Kent Walker appears routine and is not, by itself, a major fundamental concern for investors. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage around Alphabet’s growing role in AI-powered shopping, robotaxis, and other ecosystem developments adds to the long-term story, but these are more thesis-supportive than immediate catalysts. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: The biggest drag is the EU Supreme Court decision upholding Alphabet’s €4.1 billion Android antitrust fine, which reinforces legal and regulatory overhangs for the stock. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: A separate Swedish court ruling ordered Alphabet to pay nearly $2 billion in a price-comparison dispute, adding to the sense that antitrust and competition risks remain active. Article Title

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target 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. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $445.00 price objective (up from $425.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Evercore raised their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. HSBC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $420.00 target price (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $413.54.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.72, for a total transaction of $153,432.28. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 27,348 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,345,358.56. This represents a 1.62% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 160,465 shares of company stock valued at $8,020,511. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $359.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. The firm has a market cap of $4.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.24. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $172.77 and a 52 week high of $408.61. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $371.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $334.41.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. The company 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were given a $0.22 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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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