Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 309,733 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 17,622 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.9% of Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $89,067,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,625,595,000 after purchasing an additional 2,666,676 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $30,534,239,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Alphabet by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 69,108,183 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $21,630,861,000 after purchasing an additional 3,218,852 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Citigroup reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 target price (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Evercore raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $414.11.

Key Alphabet News

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 Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $346.77 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $183.71 and a one year high of $408.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $368.89 and its 200 day moving average is $338.14. The firm has a market cap of $4.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.45, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 6.71%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total transaction of $39,343.36. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,615,656.24. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total transaction of $387,061.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 1,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $545,941.03. The trade was a 41.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

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.