Legal & General Group Plc Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,912,752 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,338,077 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 2.6% of Legal & General Group Plc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.31% of Alphabet worth $11,866,691,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $53,000. Kentucky Trust Co grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 142.9% during the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $53,000. Finally, Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $69,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. New Street Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. DZ Bank reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, February 16th. Finally, CICC Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $388.00 to $407.91 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.13.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $368.53 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $162.00 and a 52-week high of $408.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $352.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $328.11. The firm has a market cap of $4.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders 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 is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet secured a major cloud deal with SpaceX, adding a high-profile customer and boosting the investment case for its AI infrastructure business. SpaceX signs cloud deal with Google
• Positive Sentiment: New Street Research raised its price target on Alphabet to $455 and reiterated a buy rating, signaling continued Wall Street confidence. MarketScreener
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports said Google’s AI search and chatbot products faced criticism after an audit found many chatbot responses on elections were flawed, which may keep pressure on Alphabet’s AI credibility. Over 90% of AI chatbot answers about midterm elections are flawed, stunning analysis shows
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s large equity raise and higher AI capex guidance are still weighing on sentiment because investors are questioning how quickly those investments will pay off. Alphabet is seeking fresh capital as stock’s 4-week losing streak tests investor appetite
• Negative Sentiment: Google also faces regulatory pressure in the UK over publisher-content rules in AI search, adding another policy risk for the business. Google search facing UK ‘conduct requirement’

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’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 value of $10,006,425.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,060 shares in the company, valued at $505,573,853.40. The trade was a 1.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 193,016 shares of company stock valued at $17,282,549 over the last three months. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.