Westchester Capital Management Inc. Reduces Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Westchester Capital Management cut its Alphabet stake by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, selling 3,752 shares and ending with 104,719 shares worth about $32.8 million. Alphabet remained the firm’s fourth-largest holding, making up 6.8% of its portfolio.
• Despite that trim, institutional ownership remains high, with other hedge funds also adding to Alphabet positions and 40.03% of the stock owned by institutions overall. Insider selling has also continued, including sales by major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv and CEO Sundar Pichai.
• Wall Street remains bullish on Alphabet, with analysts assigning a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average target price of $413.13. The company also recently beat earnings estimates and raised its quarterly dividend from $0.21 to $0.22 per share.

Westchester Capital Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 104,719 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 3,752 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 6.8% of Westchester Capital Management Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Westchester Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $32,777,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,826,000 after buying an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.6% during the second quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $685,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.2% during the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $85,557,000 after buying an additional 48,805 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.9% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $8,495,000 after buying an additional 3,120 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 29th. HSBC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $420.00 price objective (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Arete Research increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $405.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, China Renaissance increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $413.13.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total transaction of $10,006,425.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,060 shares of the company's stock, valued at $505,573,853.40. This represents a 1.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 193,016 shares of company stock worth $17,282,549 in the last ninety days. 11.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s drone unit Wing expanded its Walmart partnership into seven more U.S. cities, pushing the service toward nearly 20 markets and signaling that drone delivery is moving from experiment to scalable business. Alphabet's Most Overlooked Division Just Had a Big Week
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo launched a new $29.99 monthly membership program with perks for frequent riders, a move that suggests the robotaxi business is building recurring revenue on top of rapid ride-growth. Waymo launches premier subscription tier for $29.99 a month, starting in select cities
• Positive Sentiment: TD Cowen raised its price target on Alphabet, adding to the bullish analyst backdrop and supporting the view that the stock still has room to run. Alphabet (GOOGL) Among Our Good Stocks to Buy Now
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America and other commentary highlighted Alphabet as a long-term AI beneficiary, especially as rising model costs could strengthen demand for Google Cloud and infrastructure. Anthropic's Priciest AI Model Yet Is Here. Why Alphabet and Amazon Will Benefit.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet sued an alleged Chinese cybercrime group accused of using Google’s AI tools to run scam operations, which shows the company is actively defending its platform but is not likely to move the stock much on its own. Google sues alleged Chinese cybercrime operation that used AI to send scam texts
• Neutral Sentiment: Some investors noted that Altimeter Capital fully exited its Alphabet stake in Q1, but this appears more like portfolio repositioning than a company-specific warning. Billionaire Brad Gerstner Dumped All of His Alphabet Then Bought 2 Stocks Nobody Expected

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $359.68 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $162.00 and a 12-month high of $408.61. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $4.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $360.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $330.26.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The company had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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