V Square Quantitative Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• V Square Quantitative Management LLC cut its Alphabet stake by 1.4% in the first quarter, selling 1,650 shares and ending with 117,740 shares worth about $33.9 million.
• Alphabet reported strong first-quarter earnings, posting $5.11 per share versus $2.64 expected and revenue of $109.9 billion, while also raising its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share.
• Wall Street sentiment remains upbeat, with several firms lifting price targets and Alphabet receiving a Moderate Buy consensus rating and average target of $413.92.

V Square Quantitative Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 117,740 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,650 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 3.6% of V Square Quantitative Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 4th largest holding. V Square Quantitative Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $33,857,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. EMC Capital Management purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $52,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $357.18 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $176.48 and a twelve month high of $408.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.33 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock's 50 day moving average is $372.61 and its 200 day moving average is $336.63.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.98 billion. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is 6.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total value of $39,343.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,833 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,615,656.24. The trade was a 0.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 160,465 shares of company stock worth $8,020,511 in the last three months. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOGL. CICC Research boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $388.00 to $407.91 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. China Renaissance boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. UBS Group restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on Alphabet from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $413.92.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: KeyCorp raised its price target on Alphabet to $445 from $425 and kept an overweight rating, reinforcing the view that the stock still has meaningful upside from current levels.
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple upbeat articles highlighted Alphabet as a leading AI and cloud beneficiary, with commentary pointing to strong distribution through Search, Android, YouTube, Google Cloud, and chips as reasons it could monetize AI better than peers.
• Positive Sentiment: New coverage argued Alphabet looks undervalued after a big run over the past year, while other pieces said the company remains one of the most attractive megacap tech names on a risk/reward basis.
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks and other market commentators continued to include GOOGL among cloud and internet stocks positioned to benefit from AI-driven data center spending and digital demand growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Business and tech commentary also pointed to product and platform strengths, including Google Search setting records during the World Cup and Waymo planning more driverless-car expansion, which support the long-term growth narrative.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet said it will begin disclosing which ads are generated with AI, a transparency move that may help trust and compliance but is unlikely to materially change near-term earnings.
• Neutral Sentiment: Britain moved to regulate Google as a critical cloud supplier to protect financial stability; the change adds oversight, but it also underscores the importance of Google Cloud rather than signaling a fundamental business setback.
• Neutral Sentiment: Reuters reported that Google is appealing an Indian ads-related trademark ruling, a legal issue that could create some noise but does not yet appear to be a major stock-moving event.
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent short-interest data was effectively flat at zero shares reported, offering little actionable signal for traders.
• Negative Sentiment: One Reuters-linked report said Google and OpenAI provided AI services to Singapore-based subsidiaries of Chinese groups on the Pentagon blacklist, which could raise regulatory scrutiny and geopolitical concerns.
• Negative Sentiment: Technical commentary noted Alphabet is testing a key resistance zone after a recovery, suggesting the stock may need a fresh catalyst to extend its move higher.

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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