Welch Financial Planning LLC Makes New $867,000 Investment in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Welch Financial Planning LLC opened a new position in Alphabet, buying 2,763 shares worth about $867,000 in the fourth quarter. Alphabet now makes up roughly 0.6% of the firm’s portfolio.
• Institutional interest in Alphabet remains strong, with large investors like Vanguard and JPMorgan Chase increasing their stakes and about 27.26% of the stock held by institutions overall.
• Alphabet continues to get upbeat support from analysts after strong earnings, including a $5.11 EPS beat and 21.8% revenue growth year over year, while the company also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share.

Welch Financial Planning LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,763 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $867,000. Alphabet accounts for approximately 0.6% of Welch Financial Planning LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 421,013,782 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $132,114,125,000 after acquiring an additional 8,128,234 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 99,529,742 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $24,240,469,000 after acquiring an additional 7,904,434 shares during the last quarter. Danske Bank A S bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $678,198,000. PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $869,781,000. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $455,745,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 617 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total value of $10,006,425.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,060 shares in the company, valued at $505,573,853.40. The trade was a 1.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 157,953 shares of company stock worth $47,767,818 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on GOOG. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Raymond James Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating and set a $425.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Alphabet from $395.00 to $460.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Phillip Securities downgraded Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $362.73.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI and cloud businesses are being cited as key growth drivers, with reports emphasizing strong revenue growth, improving cloud margins, and a large backlog supporting future expansion.
• Positive Sentiment: New product and platform launches, including Googlebook laptops and broader Gemini AI integrations, are reinforcing the view that Alphabet can monetize AI across both software and hardware.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and investor commentary remains upbeat, with multiple bullish ratings, higher price targets, and articles arguing Alphabet still has room to run after its post-earnings surge. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Anthropic plans to spend heavily on Google infrastructure add to the narrative that Alphabet is becoming a central provider of AI compute capacity.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $397.17 on Friday. The stock's fifty day moving average is $325.64 and its 200 day moving average is $316.44. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $163.33 and a fifty-two week high of $399.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.81 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.30, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.81 EPS. Alphabet's quarterly revenue was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 6.41%.

About Alphabet

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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