Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stock Position Lowered by Payden & Rygel

Payden & Rygel cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 20.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 146,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 38,300 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 3.2% of Payden & Rygel’s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Payden & Rygel’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $45,855,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after acquiring an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after buying an additional 506 shares during the period. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY increased its holdings in Alphabet by 17.6% during the second quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $685,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 11.2% during the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $85,557,000 after buying an additional 48,805 shares during the period. Finally, United Bank increased its holdings in Alphabet by 6.9% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,495,000 after buying an additional 3,120 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total transaction of $2,481,078.77. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,293,309.12. The trade was a 14.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,923,235.59. The trade was a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 193,016 shares of company stock valued at $17,282,549. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet secured a major cloud deal with SpaceX, adding a high-profile customer and boosting the investment case for its AI infrastructure business. SpaceX signs cloud deal with Google
• Positive Sentiment: New Street Research raised its price target on Alphabet to $455 and reiterated a buy rating, signaling continued Wall Street confidence. MarketScreener
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports said Google’s AI search and chatbot products faced criticism after an audit found many chatbot responses on elections were flawed, which may keep pressure on Alphabet’s AI credibility. Over 90% of AI chatbot answers about midterm elections are flawed, stunning analysis shows
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s large equity raise and higher AI capex guidance are still weighing on sentiment because investors are questioning how quickly those investments will pay off. Alphabet is seeking fresh capital as stock’s 4-week losing streak tests investor appetite
• Negative Sentiment: Google also faces regulatory pressure in the UK over publisher-content rules in AI search, adding another policy risk for the business. Google search facing UK ‘conduct requirement’

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $368.53 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $352.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $327.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $162.00 and a 12-month high of $408.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company 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 an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.41%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GOOGL. Truist Financial set a $430.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Freedom Capital lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. President Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $375.00 to $465.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.13.

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.