Lavelle Capital LP Purchases New Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Lavelle Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 23,568 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,777,000. Alphabet accounts for about 4.2% of Lavelle Capital LP’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 477 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $137,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the period. Rockbridge Investment Management LCC lifted its position in Alphabet by 0.5% during the first quarter. Rockbridge Investment Management LCC now owns 5,460 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,570,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Ruggaard & Associates LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 0.9% during the first quarter. Ruggaard & Associates LLC now owns 2,921 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $840,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Cadia Private Client LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% during the first quarter. Cadia Private Client LLC now owns 2,589 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $744,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Midwest Professional Planners LTD. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the first quarter. Midwest Professional Planners LTD. now owns 2,364 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $680,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $354.30 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.64, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $196.60 and a 12 month high of $408.61. The firm has a market cap of $4.33 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.80, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $355.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $340.41.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $411.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. CICC Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $388.00 to $407.91 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $379.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $419.86.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud revenue reportedly increased 82% in the second quarter, with backlog reaching $514 billion, while the Gemini app reached approximately 950 million monthly active users. The results reinforce the commercial demand supporting Alphabet’s AI and cloud investments. Google’s AI business is booming, so why are DeepMind’s biggest names quitting?
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors continue to highlight Alphabet’s strong cash generation, balance sheet and valuation relative to its growth prospects. Some market models see the shares reaching $400 as Cloud momentum and AI monetization continue. Price Prediction: Google Will Hit $400 on This Date
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s expanded Google Cloud partnership with AI lab Mirendil, reportedly worth more than $100 million over multiple years, provides another example of demand for its computing infrastructure. Mirendil Google Cloud deal

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.39, for a total transaction of $27,337.98. Following the sale, the director directly owned 18,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,305,738.46. The trade was a 0.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 118,138 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.90, for a total value of $2,232,808.20. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 600,547 shares of company stock worth $16,255,540. 11.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.