Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stock Position Trimmed by Seneca House Advisors

Seneca House Advisors decreased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 12.0% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 54,449 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 7,443 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 6.2% of Seneca House Advisors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Seneca House Advisors’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,657,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $52,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of Alphabet 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total value of $39,343.36. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,833 shares of the company’s stock, 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 159,415 shares of company stock valued at $7,672,279. 11.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOGL. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. President Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $375.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and set a $438.00 target price (up from $416.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $455.00 target price (up from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $414.54.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reportedly developed a new AI server chip, “Frozen v2,” to make Gemini run more efficiently, which could improve margins and help ease compute constraints for Google Cloud. Reuters: Google plans new chip to run Gemini models more efficiently
• Positive Sentiment: Google released new Gemini models, including cheaper and more efficient versions, signaling continued AI product momentum ahead of earnings. TechCrunch: Google releases three new Gemini models
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentary remain constructive on Alphabet going into Q2 results, with expectations that Search and Google Cloud can still deliver strong growth. Yahoo Finance: Alphabet Q2 Earnings Preview
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s earnings report on Wednesday is expected to be a major market test for AI spending, cloud growth, and capital expenditure discipline. Invezz: What to expect from Alphabet’s Q2 earnings
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet is also facing a cluster of securities-fraud investigation headlines, though these are largely legal overhangs at this stage rather than new operational news. PR Newswire: Securities fraud investigation continues
• Negative Sentiment: Reuters reported that a flagship Gemini model remains delayed, adding to investor worries that heavy AI spending may not translate into results quickly enough. Reuters: Alphabet’s Gemini delay, spending worries loom over earnings

Alphabet Trading Down 1.4%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $347.15 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.21 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $187.46 and a 52-week high of $408.61. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $367.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $338.65.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. 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%.

Alphabet 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.