Global Endowment Management LP Lowers Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Global Endowment Management LP decreased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 100,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,917 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 3.9% of Global Endowment Management LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Global Endowment Management LP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $31,314,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after acquiring an additional 12,531,695 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after acquiring an additional 4,008,374 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,625,595,000 after acquiring an additional 2,666,676 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $30,534,239,000. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its position in Alphabet by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,881,908 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $16,865,158,000 after acquiring an additional 774,336 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories 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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GOOGL. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $393.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $410.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Truist Financial set a $430.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Wolfe Research lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $413.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total transaction of $2,481,078.77. Following the sale, the insider owned 51,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,293,309.12. This represents a 14.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 191,966 shares of company stock worth $16,963,968 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $359.68 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $360.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $330.34. 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 price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.23. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $162.00 and a 1-year high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. 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%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

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.