Costello Asset Management INC Sells 3,079 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Costello Asset Management INC decreased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 59,162 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 3,079 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 5.9% of Costello Asset Management INC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Costello Asset Management INC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,013,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. EMC Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $52,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains broadly bullish on Alphabet, with multiple reports citing strong cloud growth, AI-driven momentum in Search and YouTube, and price targets still above current trading levels. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts say Alphabet could post a strong Q2, helped by Google Cloud strength and the value of its Anthropic stake, which may support upside if earnings beat expectations. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also positioning for Alphabet’s upcoming earnings report, with options traders expecting a sizable move, indicating that the stock may stay volatile into the release. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Bloomberg-reported delays to Gemini 3.5 Pro have sparked fears that Google is lagging in AI, with concerns that the model’s coding performance fell short of internal goals. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet is facing added regulatory pressure after the EU ordered it to open Android and search data to rival AI companies, and a San Francisco order to remove “nudify” apps from app stores adds to the broader legal overhang. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Securities-fraud investigation headlines are creating an additional near-term overhang, even though these are still allegations and not a proven finding of wrongdoing. Article Title

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $390.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $460.00 target price (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Phillip Securities boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $340.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Three research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $414.11.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $346.77 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $183.71 and a 52-week 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 firm’s fifty day moving average is $368.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $338.14. The stock has a market cap of $4.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total value of $387,061.50. Following the transaction, the director owned 1,481 shares in the company, valued at approximately $545,941.03. This represents a 41.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

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.