Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Trims Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 352,294 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,834 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.4% of Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $110,268,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $53,000. Kentucky Trust Co increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. iSAM Funds UK Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $53,000. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $63,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway’s $10 billion commitment gives Alphabet a high-profile endorsement and suggests long-term confidence in the company’s AI and cloud strategy. Alphabet plans to raise $80 billion for AI goals, Berkshire to invest $10 billion
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s ownership stakes in major private AI companies like SpaceX and Anthropic could provide hidden upside if those firms eventually go public. Alphabet Stock Offers Exposure To SpaceX, Anthropic Before IPOs: What That Means For Investors
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage of Alphabet’s expanding AI coding, hardware, and consumer-device strategy underscores the company’s push to compete more aggressively, but it does not appear to be the immediate stock-moving catalyst today. Microsoft and Google are late to AI coding, but ‘absolutely critical’ they compete for growth
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s proposed $80 billion capital raise is raising dilution concerns and signaling much heavier near-term AI capex, which is pressuring the shares. Exclusive: EU cloud rules to curb Amazon, Google access to strategic tenders, draft document shows
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that EU cloud rules could restrict Google’s access to strategic government tenders add another regulatory overhang for the company’s cloud business. Alphabet to raise $80 billion in equity capital for AI spending

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of several research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Evercore lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Freedom Capital lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. China Renaissance lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $413.33.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total transaction of $412,923.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,531 shares in the company, valued at $995,341.06. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,923,235.59. This trade represents a 5.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 225,516 shares of company stock valued at $27,142,399 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $376.37 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $4.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.26. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $162.00 and a twelve month high of $408.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a 50 day moving average of $347.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $325.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be given 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 is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

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.