Sankala Group LLC Invests $1.64 Million in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Sankala Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 5,258 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,639,000. Alphabet accounts for 1.4% of Sankala Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tobam lifted its stake in Alphabet by 37.7% in the fourth quarter. Tobam now owns 35,634 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,153,000 after purchasing an additional 9,750 shares during the last quarter. Clearwave Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,928,000. Wick Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 23.4% during the fourth quarter. Wick Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,676 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,151,000 after buying an additional 696 shares during the last quarter. Arwa LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,272,000. Finally, Instrumental Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Instrumental Wealth LLC now owns 3,140 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $965,000 after buying an additional 207 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $390.00 price target (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on Alphabet from $395.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Daiwa Securities Group lifted their target price on Alphabet from $380.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Two investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $413.13.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is being viewed as a major AI winner thanks to ongoing investment in AI infrastructure and data centers, which could support future cloud and AI revenue growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Berkshire Hathaway nearly tripled its Alphabet position may be seen as a strong vote of confidence from a major long-term investor. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage emphasizing Alphabet’s strong earnings and expanding Google Cloud backlog supports the case for continued fundamental improvement. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s stock is drawing increased investor attention and analyst commentary, but these are mostly sentiment-driven mentions rather than new company-specific catalysts. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Noam Shazeer, a top Google DeepMind/Gemini AI leader, is leaving for OpenAI, underscoring the competitive AI talent war. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: John Jumper is also departing Google DeepMind for Anthropic, adding to concerns that Alphabet may be losing key AI researchers. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo’s recall of nearly 3,900 robotaxis after construction-zone driving errors raises safety and regulatory concerns for Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle business. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: The UK ordering Google to improve search-ranking transparency highlights continued regulatory scrutiny over its core search business. Article Title

Alphabet Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $368.48 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $367.04 and its 200 day moving average is $332.07. The stock has a market cap of $4.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.23. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $162.00 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.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The business had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total value of $2,481,078.77. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,293,309.12. This represents a 14.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $381.00, for a total transaction of $38,862.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,721 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,132,701. The trade was a 0.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 160,516 shares of company stock valued at $7,344,604 over the last three months. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.