Swedbank AB Decreases Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Swedbank AB reduced its Alphabet position by 1.6% in the first quarter, selling 154,973 shares and leaving it with 9.53 million shares valued at about $2.74 billion.
• Wall Street remains upbeat on Alphabet, with analysts issuing multiple buy ratings and a consensus price target of $413.73, suggesting more upside from current levels.
• Alphabet reported strong recent fundamentals, beating Q1 EPS and revenue estimates, while also raising its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share from $0.21.

Swedbank AB cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,531,119 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 154,973 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 2.9% of Swedbank AB's portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Swedbank AB owned 0.08% of Alphabet worth $2,740,769,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $30,534,239,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 855.3% during the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 14,525,280 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,546,413,000 after buying an additional 13,004,828 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 11,605,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diamant Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 28,950.0% in the first quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,291,926 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,671,986,000 after acquiring an additional 9,259,940 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Roth Capital reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Evercore boosted their price target on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Phillip Securities upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $340.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "moderate buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Daiwa Securities Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $380.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $445.00 price target (up from $425.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, June 1st. Three 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $413.73.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total value of $387,061.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 1,481 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $545,941.03. This represents a 41.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279 over the last three months. 11.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Warren Buffett said he initiated Berkshire Hathaway’s Alphabet investment, a high-profile endorsement that is helping sentiment around Alphabet (GOOGL). Warren Buffett tells CNBC he initiated Berkshire Hathaway's investment in Alphabet
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple analyst previews say Alphabet’s AI momentum, cloud backlog, and earnings growth expectations could support another strong quarter, keeping investors upbeat ahead of results. Alphabet’s AI Spending Question Looms Over Q2 Earnings
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks upgraded Alphabet to strong-buy, citing earnings growth expectations and attractive fundamentals relative to its valuation. Zacks upgrade to strong-buy
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet expanded its clean-energy commitments with its largest solar and battery storage purchase yet, which supports its long-term infrastructure strategy but is not an immediate earnings driver. Google's biggest clean power project is 40 miles north of xAI's unpermitted gas power plant
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet also drew attention for a new collaboration with INVIDI Technologies to extend addressable advertising to set-top boxes, a potentially helpful ad-tech expansion but still early-stage. INVIDI Technologies Collaborates with Google to Integrate Google Ad Manager
• Negative Sentiment: The European Commission is preparing new fines against Google, renewing regulatory risk and adding pressure to Alphabet’s legal overhang. EU Prepares to Fine Google as Part of Increased Big Tech Enforcement
• Negative Sentiment: Google is also fighting antitrust scrutiny in Europe and Switzerland, including efforts to preserve a court ruling that overturned a $1.7 billion EU fine and a new Swiss probe over Android search defaults. Google urges EU top court to back ruling scrapping $1.7 billion antitrust fine
• Negative Sentiment: Separate reports raised concerns about Google’s AI search tools and a DeepMind researcher’s resignation over the company’s Pentagon work, both of which could add reputational risk. A DeepMind researcher resigned over its AI military deal

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $370.92 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $370.84 and a 200-day moving average of $337.62. 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 Inc. has a 1-year low of $180.48 and a 1-year high of $408.61. The company has a market cap of $4.49 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.24.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The company had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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