Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stock Position Cut by Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC

Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 69,113 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,047 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 4.5% of Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position. Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $21,633,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter worth approximately $416,217,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 887,209 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $277,696,000 after purchasing an additional 93,293 shares during the period. Sovran Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,401,000 after purchasing an additional 4,241 shares during the period. Belpointe Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 72,608 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,652,000 after purchasing an additional 3,740 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,666,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $405,131,000 after purchasing an additional 60,831 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total value of $178,701.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,923,235.59. This trade represents a 5.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 193,016 shares of company stock worth $17,282,549. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Truist Financial set a $430.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and set a $435.00 price objective (up from $427.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Two research 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $413.13.

Alphabet News Roundup

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’

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $368.53 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.11, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a fifty day moving average of $352.70 and a 200 day moving average of $327.81. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $162.00 and a fifty-two 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.

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, beating the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 6.41%.

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.