Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Bought by Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 20.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 420,946 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 72,286 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.9% of Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $131,756,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $416,217,000. Sovran Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,401,000 after acquiring an additional 4,241 shares during the last quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 21.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 50,064 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,171,000 after acquiring an additional 8,746 shares during the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 72,608 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,652,000 after acquiring an additional 3,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,666,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $405,131,000 after acquiring an additional 60,831 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $388.83 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $4.71 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.26. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $162.00 and a 12-month high of $408.61. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $342.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $323.73. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. CICC Research raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $388.00 to $407.91 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $385.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Two investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $412.65.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total transaction of $2,481,078.77. Following 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 226,481 shares of company stock worth $27,422,061 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet 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.