Nwam LLC Acquires 18,799 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Nwam LLC lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 45.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 60,523 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,799 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.0% of Nwam LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. Nwam LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,362,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 38,409.2% in the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 179,836,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,643,262,000 after buying an additional 179,369,280 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its stake in Alphabet by 28,482.8% during the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 112,091,870 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $35,174,429,000 after buying an additional 111,699,704 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $18,093,665,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 850.3% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 17,692,600 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,551,938,000 after acquiring an additional 15,830,754 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 421,013,782 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $132,114,125,000 after acquiring an additional 8,128,234 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $416.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.44.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total value of $39,343.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,615,656.24. The trade was a 0.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 159,415 shares of company stock valued at $7,672,279 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America and Wedbush remain bullish, with both highlighting strong cloud growth, AI monetization potential, and upside to the stock ahead of earnings. Alphabet could crush estimates on Cloud strength, Anthropic windfall: BofA
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors are still pointing to accelerating Google Search and Google Cloud growth, while retail interest and institutional ownership remain strong ahead of the July 22 report.
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI and cloud businesses remain central to the bullish thesis, with multiple articles noting that the company could benefit from rising AI infrastructure spend and strong earnings expectations.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.2%

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $346.12 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $184.73 and a 52 week high of $404.47. 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 stock’s 50 day moving average price is $366.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $336.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.40, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $2.43. 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 $106.96 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.81 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

About Alphabet

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.