Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Has $1.37 Billion Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 301.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,374,570 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,283,525 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 2.3% of Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,369,240,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $52,000. Kentucky Trust Co grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 142.9% in the 4th quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $53,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total transaction of $412,923.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $995,341.06. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,923,235.59. This trade represents a 5.76% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 191,966 shares of company stock worth $16,963,968 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $359.68 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.44, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $360.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $330.34. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $162.00 and a 52 week high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced 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 the consensus estimate 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 predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s drone unit Wing expanded its Walmart partnership into seven more U.S. cities, pushing the service toward nearly 20 markets and signaling that drone delivery is moving from experiment to scalable business. Alphabet’s Most Overlooked Division Just Had a Big Week
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo launched a new $29.99 monthly membership program with perks for frequent riders, a move that suggests the robotaxi business is building recurring revenue on top of rapid ride-growth. Waymo launches premier subscription tier for $29.99 a month, starting in select cities
• Positive Sentiment: TD Cowen raised its price target on Alphabet, adding to the bullish analyst backdrop and supporting the view that the stock still has room to run. Alphabet (GOOGL) Among Our Good Stocks to Buy Now
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America and other commentary highlighted Alphabet as a long-term AI beneficiary, especially as rising model costs could strengthen demand for Google Cloud and infrastructure. Anthropic’s Priciest AI Model Yet Is Here. Why Alphabet and Amazon Will Benefit.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet sued an alleged Chinese cybercrime group accused of using Google’s AI tools to run scam operations, which shows the company is actively defending its platform but is not likely to move the stock much on its own. Google sues alleged Chinese cybercrime operation that used AI to send scam texts
• Neutral Sentiment: Some investors noted that Altimeter Capital fully exited its Alphabet stake in Q1, but this appears more like portfolio repositioning than a company-specific warning. Billionaire Brad Gerstner Dumped All of His Alphabet Then Bought 2 Stocks Nobody Expected

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOGL. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $515.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, China Renaissance lifted their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.13.

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.