Groupe la Francaise Has $148.86 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Groupe la Francaise lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 421,116 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,648 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.8% of Groupe la Francaise’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Groupe la Francaise’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $148,861,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth about $360,856,000. Serenity Investment Advisors grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.0% in the second quarter. Serenity Investment Advisors now owns 1,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $493,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Tanager Wealth Management LLP increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.6% during the 2nd quarter. Tanager Wealth Management LLP now owns 133,626 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,214,000 after purchasing an additional 12,771 shares during the last quarter. Atlantic Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 45.7% during the 2nd quarter. Atlantic Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,655 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $585,000 after purchasing an additional 519 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DMC Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $265,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet announced a partnership with Morgan State University to establish an AI campus, potentially expanding long-term talent development, research access and adoption of Google Cloud and Gemini. Alphabet Morgan State University AI partnership
• Positive Sentiment: Google launched a dedicated Gemini app for Windows PCs, making its AI assistant more accessible and increasing the opportunity to drive usage across consumer devices and services. Gemini Windows app
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s planned €13 billion investment in Finnish AI infrastructure, alongside a long-term agreement to purchase power from a nuclear plant, could provide reliable, lower-cost electricity for data centers and support Gemini, Search, Maps and YouTube. Google Finland AI infrastructure investment
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investment commentary continue to highlight Alphabet’s cloud growth, more than 20% revenue growth and strong recent earnings as evidence that the company can fund substantial AI investment while maintaining attractive profitability. Alphabet return on invested capital and cloud growth
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short interest was listed at zero shares, unchanged from the prior report, so the data provide no meaningful evidence of short-covering pressure or growing bearish positioning.
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain focused on the cost of Alphabet’s AI buildout. Estimates that AI capital expenditures could reach roughly $200 billion have raised concerns about pressure on free cash flow, even though the stock’s valuation is viewed as reasonable. Alphabet AI capital expenditures
• Negative Sentiment: Meta’s new Muse AI agent has renewed concerns that autonomous assistants could bypass traditional search pages and reduce Google search advertising opportunities. ARK Invest’s decision to sell approximately $28 million of Alphabet and buy Meta added to the competitive sentiment. Meta Muse competition
• Negative Sentiment: Potential regulation could increase infrastructure costs: proposed U.S. legislation would require large data-center users to pay the full incremental cost of power-grid upgrades, while Finnish officials have warned that Google’s expansion could strain electricity supply. Data Center Fair Share Act

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective (down from $445.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Wedbush initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $445.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (down from $445.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Roth Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $435.00 to $440.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $415.55.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $330.39 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.59, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.21. 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 Inc. has a 12-month low of $236.58 and a 12-month high of $404.47. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $345.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $341.69.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.87 by $6.24. The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $116.53 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 24.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.31 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.42%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total transaction of $149,606.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,386 shares in the company, valued at $9,125,015.20. The trade was a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $3,832,277.26. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 451,925 shares of company stock valued at $12,371,544 in the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Profile

Alphabet Inc is a technology holding company best known as the parent company of Google. It was established in 2015 as part of a corporate restructuring intended to separate Google’s core internet businesses from a collection of other ventures. Google remains Alphabet’s largest business and serves users, advertisers, businesses and developers worldwide.

Google’s principal products and services include its internet search engine, online advertising platforms, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and Google Photos.