Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. Ltd. Sells 1,978 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. Ltd. lessened its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 64.0% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,112 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,978 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 0.8% of Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest position. Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $320,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. EMC Capital Management bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $52,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the 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 owned 75,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. This represents a 10.68% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 159,415 shares of company stock valued at $7,672,279 in the last ninety days. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $414.11.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains broadly bullish on Alphabet, with multiple reports citing strong cloud growth, AI-driven momentum in Search and YouTube, and price targets still above current trading levels. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts say Alphabet could post a strong Q2, helped by Google Cloud strength and the value of its Anthropic stake, which may support upside if earnings beat expectations. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also positioning for Alphabet’s upcoming earnings report, with options traders expecting a sizable move, indicating that the stock may stay volatile into the release. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Bloomberg-reported delays to Gemini 3.5 Pro have sparked fears that Google is lagging in AI, with concerns that the model’s coding performance fell short of internal goals. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet is facing added regulatory pressure after the EU ordered it to open Android and search data to rival AI companies, and a San Francisco order to remove “nudify” apps from app stores adds to the broader legal overhang. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Securities-fraud investigation headlines are creating an additional near-term overhang, even though these are still allegations and not a proven finding of wrongdoing. Article Title

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $346.77 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $368.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $337.97. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $183.71 and a 52 week high of $408.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were paid a $0.22 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.71%.

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.