Frances Arnold Sells 102 Shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $381.00, for a total transaction of $38,862.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 18,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,132,701. The trade was a 0.54% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Frances Arnold also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, April 30th, Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.00, for a total value of $37,842.00.

Alphabet Stock Down 3.8%

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $358.39 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $344.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $325.11. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $163.33 and a one year high of $404.47. The firm has a market cap of $4.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $2.43. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.96 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.81 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway’s $10 billion commitment to Alphabet supports the company’s AI strategy and signals strong long-term investor confidence. Berkshire invests extra $10 billion in Alphabet, deepening bet on AI
• Positive Sentiment: Some analysts say Google remains a key beneficiary of AI search growth, suggesting its core search and ad business may hold up better than feared. Google Is the Clear Beneficiary,’ Says Top Analyst as AI Search Takes Off
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s stakes in private AI-related companies such as Anthropic and exposure to future IPO optionality may add long-term upside, but this is not a near-term catalyst. Alphabet Stock Offers Exposure To SpaceX, Anthropic Before IPOs
• Negative Sentiment: The $80 billion stock sale raised concerns about dilution and the rising cost of Alphabet’s AI expansion, which is pressuring sentiment in the stock. Alphabet plans to raise $80 billion to pay for AI buildout
• Negative Sentiment: Reuters reported the EU may tighten cloud rules in strategic tenders, which could limit Google’s access to certain government contracts in Europe. EU cloud rules to curb Amazon, Google access to strategic tenders

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 421,013,782 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $132,114,125,000 after purchasing an additional 8,128,234 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 187,102,863 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $58,712,878,000 after purchasing an additional 953,790 shares during the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its stake in Alphabet by 38,409.2% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 179,836,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,643,262,000 after buying an additional 179,369,280 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its stake in Alphabet by 28,482.8% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 112,091,870 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $35,174,429,000 after buying an additional 111,699,704 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 100,602,893 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,569,189,000 after buying an additional 1,073,151 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on GOOG. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 price objective (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $345.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $395.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $376.00.

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.