Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Bought by Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 12.6% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 170,449 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 19,016 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 0.8% of Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $48,895,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.5% during the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 200,415 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $57,491,000 after purchasing an additional 2,877 shares during the last quarter. V2 Financial group LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 17.4% in the first quarter. V2 Financial group LLC now owns 14,995 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,302,000 after purchasing an additional 2,226 shares during the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% in the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 1,573,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $451,305,000 after purchasing an additional 4,300 shares during the last quarter. TFR Capital LLC. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the first quarter. TFR Capital LLC. now owns 31,247 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,964,000 after buying an additional 545 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.1% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,181,946 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,060,213,000 after buying an additional 718,053 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on GOOG. Wells Fargo & Company set a $416.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $383.44.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $346.12 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $366.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $336.65. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $184.73 and a 52 week high of $404.47. 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:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $2.43. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.96 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.81 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.32 EPS 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

Alphabet News Summary

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.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total transaction of $3,142,911.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 75,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. This represents a 10.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Alphabet

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.