Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL is Seneca House Advisors’ 2nd Largest Position

Seneca House Advisors lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 12.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 54,449 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 7,443 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 6.2% of Seneca House Advisors’ portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Seneca House Advisors’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,657,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOGL. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Zacks Research raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Truist Financial set a $430.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. CICC Research increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $388.00 to $407.91 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, New Street Research lifted their price target 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $414.54.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reportedly developed a new AI server chip, “Frozen v2,” to make Gemini run more efficiently, which could improve margins and help ease compute constraints for Google Cloud. Reuters: Google plans new chip to run Gemini models more efficiently
• Positive Sentiment: Google released new Gemini models, including cheaper and more efficient versions, signaling continued AI product momentum ahead of earnings. TechCrunch: Google releases three new Gemini models
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentary remain constructive on Alphabet going into Q2 results, with expectations that Search and Google Cloud can still deliver strong growth. Yahoo Finance: Alphabet Q2 Earnings Preview
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s earnings report on Wednesday is expected to be a major market test for AI spending, cloud growth, and capital expenditure discipline. Invezz: What to expect from Alphabet’s Q2 earnings
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet is also facing a cluster of securities-fraud investigation headlines, though these are largely legal overhangs at this stage rather than new operational news. PR Newswire: Securities fraud investigation continues
• Negative Sentiment: Reuters reported that a flagship Gemini model remains delayed, adding to investor worries that heavy AI spending may not translate into results quickly enough. Reuters: Alphabet’s Gemini delay, spending worries loom over earnings

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $347.15 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $4.21 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.24. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $187.46 and a 52-week high of $408.61. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $367.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $338.65. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction 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 is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total transaction of $39,343.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,833 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,615,656.24. This trade represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 159,415 shares of company stock valued at $7,672,279. 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.