Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Acquired by Invesco Ltd.

Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 45,394,474 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 208,362 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 2.2% of Invesco Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Invesco Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $14,208,470,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $416,217,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 887,209 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $277,696,000 after acquiring an additional 93,293 shares in the last quarter. Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd as trustee for Retail Employees Superannuation Trust bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $28,902,000. Private Advisory Group LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC now owns 24,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,736,000 after acquiring an additional 2,678 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $4,338,397,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOGL. China Renaissance increased their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $435.00 target price (up from $427.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. New Street Research boosted their price target on Alphabet from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Truist Financial set a $430.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Phillip Securities raised their price objective on Alphabet from $340.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $413.13.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s core AI and cloud story got another boost after reports highlighted strong earnings momentum and a rapidly expanding Google Cloud backlog, reinforcing the view that business demand remains healthy. Alphabet Just Beat Earnings by 94% and Doubled Its Cloud Backlog to $460 Billion
• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it nearly tripled its Alphabet stake, a notable vote of confidence from a major value investor that may support sentiment. Warren Buffett Just Tripled Down on the Stock Bill Ackman Is Selling
• Positive Sentiment: HSBC announced a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud to expand AI usage, adding another large enterprise customer to Alphabet’s cloud growth narrative. HSBC partners with Google Cloud to expand AI usage
• Positive Sentiment: Google unveiled new AI-related plans, including an “AI Control Roadmap” to address rogue AI agents, underscoring continued investment and leadership in AI infrastructure and safety. Google Devises Battle Plan to Combat Rogue AI Agents
• Neutral Sentiment: Google’s AI talent war remains a focus after Noam Shazeer, a co-lead on Gemini, reportedly left for OpenAI, which may raise questions about retention but does not change the core business overnight. Google’s Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer to join OpenAI
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo issued a recall of about 3,900 robotaxis after software issues caused vehicles to enter highway construction zones, adding regulatory and execution risk to Alphabet’s self-driving unit. Waymo to recall over 3,800 robotaxis over risk of entering closed construction zones
• Negative Sentiment: A director sold a meaningful block of shares, which can modestly weigh on sentiment even though insider sales are not always a bearish signal. SEC filing for John L. Hennessy sale

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $368.48 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.11, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.23. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $162.00 and a 52-week high of $408.61. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $366.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $331.69.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 6.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total value of $178,701.71. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,923,235.59. The trade was a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 160,516 shares of company stock valued at $7,344,604. 11.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Company 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.