Principal Financial Group Inc. Has $2.03 Billion Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,463,893 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,491 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.0% of Principal Financial Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,028,370,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Imprint Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Towne Trust Company N.A lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 34.0% in the fourth quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 134 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lynch Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $61,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOG. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Alphabet from $395.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $362.73.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $397.17 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $163.33 and a 12 month high of $399.93. The firm has a market cap of $4.81 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $325.64 and a 200-day moving average of $316.44. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $2.43. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The company had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.96 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.81 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.28 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 6.41%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.65, for a total transaction of $348,232.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,187,638.65. This trade represents a 22.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 157,953 shares of company stock worth $47,767,818. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI and cloud businesses are being cited as key growth drivers, with reports emphasizing strong revenue growth, improving cloud margins, and a large backlog supporting future expansion.
• Positive Sentiment: New product and platform launches, including Googlebook laptops and broader Gemini AI integrations, are reinforcing the view that Alphabet can monetize AI across both software and hardware.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and investor commentary remains upbeat, with multiple bullish ratings, higher price targets, and articles arguing Alphabet still has room to run after its post-earnings surge. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Anthropic plans to spend heavily on Google infrastructure add to the narrative that Alphabet is becoming a central provider of AI compute capacity.

Alphabet Profile

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.