Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 421,013,782 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 8,128,234 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.9% of Vanguard Group Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 3.49% of Alphabet worth $132,114,125,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Imprint Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $38,000. Towne Trust Company N.A boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 34.0% in the 4th quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 134 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Lynch Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $61,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Alphabet Stock Up 1.2%
Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $384.34 on Wednesday. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $313.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $309.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.65 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.25. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $149.49 and a 12-month high of $388.96.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - 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 the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $2.43. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The company had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.96 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.81 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 13.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.41%.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several research firms recently issued reports on GOOG. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $425.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $362.73.
Read Our Latest Analysis on GOOG
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total transaction of $9,877,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,818,524 shares in the company, valued at approximately $856,605,814.08. This represents a 1.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.65, for a total value of $348,232.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,581 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,187,638.65. This represents a 22.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 158,553 shares of company stock worth $47,951,856. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
More Alphabet News
Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Major potential customer win: reports say AI startup Anthropic committed to spend roughly $200 billion with Google Cloud over five years, a revenue and capacity validation that could materially boost long‑term cloud sales and chip demand. Anthropic commits to spending $200 billion on Google's cloud and chips
- Positive Sentiment: Cloud momentum and AI “lock‑in”: Q1 cloud growth and reported backlog (~$460B+) point to steep enterprise AI demand and future revenue conversion, supporting higher earnings expectations. Alphabet's $460B AI Lock-In
- Positive Sentiment: Analyst bullishness: several firms raised price targets (including street‑high $515 and J.P. Morgan’s $460), which reinforces buy interest and helped push the shares to record levels. Top analyst sets $515 price target
- Positive Sentiment: Product/competitive move: Google is planning to sell TPUs directly, expanding its AI infrastructure offering and potentially improving cloud margins while intensifying competition with NVIDIA for AI compute. Google moves to sell TPUs directly
- Neutral Sentiment: Capital raising to fund buildout: Alphabet tapped the euro bond market with strong demand for a multi‑tranche offering — shows investor appetite for funding its AI/data‑center capex but increases near‑term debt issuance. Alphabet taps euro bond market with six‑tranche offering
- Neutral Sentiment: U.S. government oversight: Google (with Microsoft and xAI) agreed to give U.S. agencies early access to advanced models for security reviews — this signals trust from regulators but adds another review layer before deployments. What we know about US stress tests of Google, xAI and Microsoft AI models
- Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/privacy risk in Europe: a senior Google scientist warned that EU proposals to share search data with rivals could expose user information — raises potential regulatory and revenue risks for search. Top Google scientist says EU data measures pose privacy risk
- Negative Sentiment: Employee unrest and DoD work: classified defense AI contracts and related protests (DeepMind unionization vote, staff petitions) create reputational/operational risk and potential talent friction. Google DeepMind employees vote to unionize amid DoD deal
- Negative Sentiment: Near‑term sell signal/downgrade: at least one boutique manager downgraded Alphabet from strong‑buy to hold, which could weigh on sentiment for risk‑sensitive flows. Zacks / downgrade reference
About Alphabet
(
Free Report)
Alphabet Inc NASDAQ: GOOG is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as "Other Bets." Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company's history.
Alphabet's core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company's ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.
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