Stonebridge Financial Group LLC Sells 1,998 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Stonebridge Financial Group LLC trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 43,632 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,998 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.2% of Stonebridge Financial Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,593,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 477 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $137,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Rockbridge Investment Management LCC raised its position in Alphabet by 0.5% during the first quarter. Rockbridge Investment Management LCC now owns 5,460 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,570,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Ruggaard & Associates LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.9% during the first quarter. Ruggaard & Associates LLC now owns 2,921 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $840,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Cadia Private Client LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.1% during the first quarter. Cadia Private Client LLC now owns 2,589 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $744,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Evansbrook LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% during the first quarter. Evansbrook LLC now owns 9,522 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,738,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Bank of America lifted their price target on Alphabet from $370.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Loop Capital lifted their target price on Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $460.00 target price (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $419.86.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.8%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $343.80 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $4.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.27, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $354.94 and a 200-day moving average of $340.84. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $196.60 and a 1-year high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%.The company had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.07 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.42%.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google’s Gemini app surpassed 1 billion monthly active users, marking a major distribution milestone that could strengthen Alphabet’s AI ecosystem, user engagement and monetization potential. Google’s Gemini app surges to one billion users
• Positive Sentiment: Ryanair signed a five-year Google Cloud agreement to deploy Gemini and DeepMind models for crew scheduling and operational decisions, providing evidence of enterprise demand for Alphabet’s AI and cloud offerings. Ryanair signs five-year Google Cloud deal
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s increased AI investment continues to attract investor interest, with analysts highlighting the company’s momentum and potential beneficiaries of its planned data-center spending. However, the scale of investment remains a key debate. Alphabet’s Higher AI Spending Could Boost These ETFs
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s earnings influence on broader S&P 500 growth underscores its importance to market performance, but it also makes the stock more sensitive to shifts in technology-sector sentiment and portfolio positioning. Tech Stocks Have Stumbled
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet remains exposed to more than 3,000 youth-addiction lawsuits alleging that social-media platforms were designed to harm young users. The litigation could create financial liability and increase regulatory pressure. Social media platforms still facing thousands of user addiction lawsuits
• Negative Sentiment: A French newspaper group asked regulators to investigate Google’s AI-generated search summaries, arguing they divert traffic from publishers. Similar disputes could raise compliance costs and threaten parts of Google’s search economics. French media asks French anti-trust watchdog to act on Google’s AI
• Negative Sentiment: AI data centers face significant power and infrastructure constraints, adding execution risk to Alphabet’s large capital-spending plans and raising questions about returns on AI investment. AI’s Next Bottleneck Isn’t Chips, It’s Power Infrastructure

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $3,832,277.26. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider directly owned 75,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. This represents a 10.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 600,547 shares of company stock worth $16,255,540. Company 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.