Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Lowers Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lessened its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 72.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 652,273 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,689,636 shares during the quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $204,161,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 50,732,476 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,333,076,000 after purchasing an additional 6,874,381 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 45,186,112 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,984,744,000 after purchasing an additional 1,034,292 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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 dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total value of $412,923.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $995,341.06. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 193,016 shares of company stock worth $17,282,549. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway’s reported $10 billion commitment to Alphabet’s capital raise is a strong vote of confidence in the company’s AI and cloud strategy, helping validate the long-term investment case. Alphabet plans to raise $80 billion for AI goals, Berkshire to invest $10 billion
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street continues to frame Alphabet as a major AI beneficiary, with analysts reaffirming bullish price targets and noting rising demand for Google Cloud and AI infrastructure. Alphabet had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by Needham & Company LLC
• Neutral Sentiment: Lovable’s expanded multi-year Google Cloud deal highlights ongoing customer demand for Alphabet’s cloud services, but it is a modest business development rather than a major near-term catalyst. Lovable signs multi-year deal with Google Cloud to up usage 5x, source says
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage around the AI boom and Alphabet’s expanding role in the sector supports the growth narrative, but much of it is sentiment-driven rather than a direct earnings update. Alphabet to raise $84.75 billion in upsized equity offering to fund AI ambitions
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s massive $84.75 billion equity raise is stirring dilution concerns and signaling that AI infrastructure spending will remain extremely capital intensive, which has weighed on the stock. Alphabet to raise $84.75 billion in upsized equity offering to fund AI ambitions
• Negative Sentiment: UK regulators imposed new conduct requirements on Google Search, including giving publishers more control over AI use of their content, adding a fresh regulatory overhang for Alphabet’s search and AI businesses. UK regulator enforces new competition requirements for Google search

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on GOOGL. DA Davidson raised their target price on Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Phillip Securities raised their target price on Alphabet from $340.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Alphabet from $330.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $413.04.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.8%

GOOGL stock opened at $358.99 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $162.00 and a twelve month 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. The firm has a market cap of $4.35 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50 day moving average of $349.51 and a 200 day moving average of $326.85.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Alphabet Company Profile

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.