AMG National Trust Bank Grows Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

AMG National Trust Bank raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 17.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 80,972 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,119 shares during the period. AMG National Trust Bank’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $23,228,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ring Mountain Capital LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Ring Mountain Capital LLC now owns 3,554 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,174,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Cannon Financial Strategists Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Cannon Financial Strategists Inc. now owns 1,589 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $499,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Financial Enhancement Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Financial Enhancement Group LLC now owns 1,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $380,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. HRC Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. HRC Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,231 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,014,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Certior Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Certior Financial Group LLC now owns 919 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $288,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Alphabet News

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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Freedom Capital cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Phillip Securities downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 target price (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.44.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total value of $3,142,911.42. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 75,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. This trade represents a 10.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.72, for a total value of $153,432.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 27,348 shares in the company, valued at $9,345,358.56. The trade was a 1.62% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.2%

GOOG opened at $346.12 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.23. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $184.73 and a 12 month high of $404.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92. The business has a 50-day moving average of $366.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $336.65.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $2.43. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.96 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.81 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

Alphabet 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.