Equitable Trust Co. Trims Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Equitable Trust Co. trimmed its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 244,417 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 5,020 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 3.2% of Equitable Trust Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $70,285,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. EMC Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $52,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total transaction of $387,061.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $545,941.03. This trade represents a 41.49% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 10.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 159,415 shares of company stock valued at $7,672,279 over the last three months. 11.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Evercore boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $435.00 to $416.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, New Street Research increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $414.11.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock 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 market capitalization of $4.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $368.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $338.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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%. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company 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 of this dividend 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 presently 6.71%.

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.