New York Life Investment Management LLC Acquires 37,538 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

New York Life Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 860,513 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 37,538 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 2.3% of New York Life Investment Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $269,341,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $53,000. Kentucky Trust Co boosted its stake in Alphabet by 142.9% in the 4th quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $53,000. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $63,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $361.85 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $347.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $325.75. The company has a market cap of $4.38 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.60, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $162.00 and a fifty-two week high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.41%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total value of $2,481,078.77. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,293,309.12. This trade represents a 14.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 193,016 shares of company stock worth $17,282,549. 11.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and issued a $460.00 price target (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. President Capital boosted their price target on Alphabet from $375.00 to $465.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Wedbush boosted their price target on Alphabet from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Tigress Financial set a $415.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $413.04.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway’s $10 billion investment signals strong outside confidence in Alphabet’s AI and cloud strategy. Alphabet plans to raise $80 billion for AI goals, Berkshire to invest $10 billion
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentators continue to argue that Alphabet remains a high-margin cash generator with attractive long-term earnings power. Google: AI Skeptics Proven Wrong as Business Booms
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage of Alphabet’s expanding AI coding, hardware, and device strategy highlights broader growth opportunities, but it is not the main driver of today’s move. Microsoft and Google are late to AI coding, but ‘absolutely critical’ they compete for growth
• Negative Sentiment: The proposed $80 billion stock sale raises dilution concerns and underscores how expensive Alphabet’s AI race has become. 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 a regulatory overhang for the cloud business. Alphabet to raise $80 billion in equity capital for AI spending

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.