Morningstar Investment Management LLC Cuts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Morningstar Investment Management LLC cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.7% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 148,172 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 4,036 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 2.6% of Morningstar Investment Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Morningstar Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $42,608,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. NewEdge Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 887,209 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $277,696,000 after buying an additional 93,293 shares during the period. PFG Investments LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 89,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $25,679,000 after buying an additional 2,269 shares during the last quarter. Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd as trustee for Retail Employees Superannuation Trust bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,902,000. Private Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC now owns 24,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,736,000 after acquiring an additional 2,678 shares in the last quarter. Finally, W.G. Shaheen & Associates DBA Whitney & Co lifted its stake in Alphabet by 17.1% in the 4th quarter. W.G. Shaheen & Associates DBA Whitney & Co now owns 118,966 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,236,000 after acquiring an additional 17,415 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $373.51 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.57 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.24. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $190.12 and a 1-year high of $408.61. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $339.62. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 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 firm had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.07 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 118,138 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.90, for a total transaction of $2,232,808.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total value of $149,606.80. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,125,015.20. This trade represents a 1.61% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 600,547 shares of company stock valued at $16,255,540 in the last 90 days. 11.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong earnings and analyst support: Alphabet’s latest results significantly exceeded consensus expectations, reinforcing confidence in accelerating revenue and profit growth. Multiple reports describe the stock as undervalued or a favorable growth investment, while analysts maintain a consensus “Buy” rating. Alphabet Stock is Climbing: What’s Going On Today?
• Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure positioning: Commentary argues Alphabet is better equipped than many peers to absorb the cost of Nvidia chips while benefiting from expanding AI demand. Investors also see Google Search, cloud services, and AI infrastructure as complementary growth engines. Berkshire Hathaway’s reported investment in Alphabet adds to the bullish narrative. The Nvidia Tax: Alphabet Mitigates It Better
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo validation: An analysis reported that Alphabet’s Waymo robotaxis crash substantially less often than human-driven vehicles. While Waymo is not yet a major earnings contributor, the finding supports Alphabet’s long-term autonomous-driving and technology portfolio. Waymo robotaxis found to crash 68% less often
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial AI momentum: Google’s partnership with Paris Saint-Germain and participation in upcoming White House AI-regulation discussions highlight expanding enterprise and institutional interest in its AI capabilities. Paris Saint-Germain partners with Google on AI
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft’s lead in cloud market share remains a competitive concern, although Alphabet’s Google Cloud continues to grow and benefits from the same AI spending cycle. Microsoft Races Ahead of Google in the Cloud
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are weighing whether heavy AI capital expenditures will temporarily pressure margins or create durable long-term returns.
• Negative Sentiment: A Google Earth tool reportedly made it possible to create AI-generated fake satellite imagery, raising questions about safeguards, misinformation, and potential regulatory scrutiny. For a Day, Google Made It Easy to Spoof Satellite Imagery

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOGL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, May 4th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets set a $465.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Freedom Capital raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $419.86.

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.