Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Acquires 1,850 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 179,643 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,850 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.6% of Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $56,228,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Kentucky Trust Co raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 142.9% in the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $63,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is testing Gemini-powered Search ads, including conversational and contextual ad formats that could improve monetization and help offset concerns that AI search may weaken its core advertising model.
• Positive Sentiment: Google and CrowdStrike helped take down a botnet targeting open-source software developers, reinforcing Alphabet’s cybersecurity capabilities and its role in defending the broader internet ecosystem.
• Positive Sentiment: Reports around Google I/O and Alphabet’s broader AI lineup, including new Gemini features and AI search tools, suggest the company is still aggressively innovating to defend its leadership in search and advertising.
• Neutral Sentiment: Google’s $15 billion Missouri AI data hub investment highlights long-term infrastructure spending to support AI growth, but the near-term stock impact is likely limited.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet has drawn market focus from traders and analysts, with prediction-market activity suggesting shares may stay near current levels in the short term.
• Negative Sentiment: DuckDuckGo reported rising installs as some users respond negatively to Google’s AI Search overhaul, raising investor concerns that the redesign could push a portion of users toward competitors.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged that one Google AI Search result was “more opinionated than it should be,” underscoring the risk of AI accuracy issues and potential user trust problems.
• Negative Sentiment: Federal prosecutors charged a Google employee with insider trading tied to Polymarket bets, creating a reputational overhang even though the case appears to involve an individual employee rather than core business operations.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.00, for a total value of $37,842.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,908,391. This represents a 0.54% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the company’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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 226,481 shares of company stock worth $27,422,061 in the last ninety days. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $388.83 on Thursday. 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 Inc. has a one year low of $162.00 and a one year high of $408.61. The stock has a market cap of $4.71 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.26. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $342.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $323.73.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The company had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of several research reports. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. China Renaissance upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Moffett Nathanson upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $412.65.

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.