Value Investment Professionals LLC Sells 8,781 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Value Investment Professionals LLC cut its Alphabet stake by 50.9% in the first quarter, selling 8,781 shares and leaving it with 8,487 shares worth about $2.44 million.
• Alphabet continues to draw bullish analyst sentiment, with firms like KeyCorp, Goldman Sachs, and Oppenheimer raising price targets; the average Wall Street target is now about $413.92.
• The company posted strong quarterly results, beating earnings and revenue estimates, and also increased its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share from $0.21.

Value Investment Professionals LLC cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 50.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,487 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 8,781 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.1% of Value Investment Professionals LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Value Investment Professionals LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,440,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Alphabet News Roundup

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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total transaction of $412,923.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $995,341.06. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total transaction of $39,343.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,833 shares in the company, valued at $6,615,656.24. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 160,465 shares of company stock valued at $8,020,511 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $357.18 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.33 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.24. 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 $176.48 and a 1 year high of $408.61. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $372.61 and a 200-day moving average of $336.63.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were paid 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 currently 6.71%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on GOOGL. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. HSBC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $420.00 price target (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. New Street Research upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Two equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $413.92.

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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