Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,463,893 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,491 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.0% of Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.05% of Alphabet worth $2,028,370,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Imprint Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $32,000. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Towne Trust Company N.A lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 34.0% during the fourth quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 134 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lynch Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $61,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI and cloud businesses are being cited as key growth drivers, with reports emphasizing strong revenue growth, improving cloud margins, and a large backlog supporting future expansion.
• Positive Sentiment: New product and platform launches, including Googlebook laptops and broader Gemini AI integrations, are reinforcing the view that Alphabet can monetize AI across both software and hardware.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and investor commentary remains upbeat, with multiple bullish ratings, higher price targets, and articles arguing Alphabet still has room to run after its post-earnings surge. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Anthropic plans to spend heavily on Google infrastructure add to the narrative that Alphabet is becoming a central provider of AI compute capacity.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.5%

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $397.17 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.30, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.25. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $163.33 and a 1-year high of $399.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $325.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $316.44.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $2.43. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.96 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.81 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.65, for a total transaction of $348,232.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,187,638.65. This trade represents a 22.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction of $178,701.71. Following the sale, 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. 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. Insiders sold 157,953 shares of company stock valued at $47,767,818 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $395.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. KeyCorp set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $362.73.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.