Kestra Advisory Services LLC Reduces Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Kestra Advisory Services LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.6% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 715,285 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 11,610 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 0.8% of Kestra Advisory Services LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Kestra Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $205,687,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. EMC Capital Management acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $52,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Dbs Bank upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $460.00 in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $390.00 price target (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Three 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $414.11.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.2%

Alphabet stock opened at $346.77 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $368.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $337.97. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $183.71 and a 52 week high of $408.61. The stock has a market cap of $4.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.24. 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 released its earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were given a $0.22 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total transaction of $387,061.50. Following the transaction, the director owned 1,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $545,941.03. This represents a 41.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total transaction of $3,142,911.42. Following the sale, the insider owned 75,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. This trade represents a 10.68% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 159,415 shares of company stock valued at $7,672,279. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains broadly bullish on Alphabet, with multiple reports citing strong cloud growth, AI-driven momentum in Search and YouTube, and price targets still above current trading levels. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts say Alphabet could post a strong Q2, helped by Google Cloud strength and the value of its Anthropic stake, which may support upside if earnings beat expectations. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also positioning for Alphabet’s upcoming earnings report, with options traders expecting a sizable move, indicating that the stock may stay volatile into the release. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Bloomberg-reported delays to Gemini 3.5 Pro have sparked fears that Google is lagging in AI, with concerns that the model’s coding performance fell short of internal goals. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet is facing added regulatory pressure after the EU ordered it to open Android and search data to rival AI companies, and a San Francisco order to remove “nudify” apps from app stores adds to the broader legal overhang. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Securities-fraud investigation headlines are creating an additional near-term overhang, even though these are still allegations and not a proven finding of wrongdoing. Article Title

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.