Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stock Position Lowered by Cornerstone Capital Inc.

Cornerstone Capital Inc. lessened its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.4% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 168,701 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,470 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 5.4% of Cornerstone Capital Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Cornerstone Capital Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $60,289,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 6.0% in the first quarter. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 477 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $137,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Rockbridge Investment Management LCC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the first quarter. Rockbridge Investment Management LCC now owns 5,460 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,570,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Ruggaard & Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the first quarter. Ruggaard & Associates LLC now owns 2,921 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $840,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Cadia Private Client LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% in the first quarter. Cadia Private Client LLC now owns 2,589 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $744,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Evansbrook LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the first quarter. Evansbrook LLC now owns 9,522 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,738,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on GOOGL. Pivotal Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $475.00 price target (up from $470.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $420.00 price target (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Zacks Research cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, May 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $420.19.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $340.67 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.11, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $352.30 and a 200 day moving average of $341.34. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $199.43 and a 52 week high of $408.61. The company has a quick ratio of 2.64, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. The business had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst remains bullish: Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed its “buy” rating and set a $410 price target, implying substantial upside from the recent trading level. Analyst Scott Devitt also expects Alphabet to reach a new all-time high over the next 12 months. Rosenblatt rating
• Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure and cloud growth remain key positives: Google Cloud reportedly grew revenue 82% year over year in the latest quarter, while Alphabet’s partnership with Marvell expands access to custom AI accelerators, networking, storage, and memory technologies connected to Google’s TPU ecosystem. The deal could improve supply-chain flexibility and support long-term AI capacity. Marvell Google AI chip deal
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo is expanding commercially: Alphabet’s autonomous-driving unit opened its lower-cost next-generation robotaxi to all riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco, potentially improving the economics and scalability of the business. Waymo robotaxi expansion
• Neutral Sentiment: Google introduced a “favorite source” feature that lets users prioritize publishers in Search, Discover, and Google News. The move may help preserve publisher relationships and search content quality, but its effect on revenue is uncertain. Google publisher feature
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet is reportedly raising approximately $3.9 billion through its first Australian-dollar bond sale. The financing could support AI infrastructure investment, though it also underscores the capital intensity of the company’s expansion plans. Alphabet Australian dollar bond
• Negative Sentiment: Custom-chip competition is increasing: Marvell’s agreement and potential $12.2 billion warrant give Google an incentive to direct more purchases toward Marvell, raising concerns that Broadcom’s previously dominant role in Google’s TPU ecosystem could be diluted. While diversification may benefit Google over time, investors may view the deal as evidence that AI spending will require heavier investment and a more complex supply chain.
• Negative Sentiment: Legal and execution risks remain: A court delayed approval of Google’s proposed purchase of Spirit Airlines’ internal data after union objections, while Micro1 is offering more than Google’s reported $10 million bid. Separately, the departure of longtime AI leader Jeff Dean and expectations that the flagship Gemini Pro release may be delayed into the autumn add to investor uncertainty. Spirit Airlines data sale delay
• Negative Sentiment: A law firm announced an investigation into potential claims on behalf of Alphabet investors, creating an additional headline risk, although no allegations or financial impact were established in the announcement. Alphabet investor investigation

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total value of $149,606.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,386 shares in the company, valued at $9,125,015.20. This trade represents a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 118,138 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.90, for a total transaction of $2,232,808.20. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 451,945 shares of company stock worth $12,382,714. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.