Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL is Patten & Patten Inc. TN’s 3rd Largest Position

Patten & Patten Inc. TN reduced its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 204,557 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 9,917 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 3.8% of Patten & Patten Inc. TN’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Patten & Patten Inc. TN’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $64,026,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $416,217,000. Sovran Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 23.6% during the third quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,401,000 after purchasing an additional 4,241 shares in the last quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 21.2% during the third quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 50,064 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,171,000 after purchasing an additional 8,746 shares in the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 5.4% during the third quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 72,608 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,652,000 after purchasing an additional 3,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in Alphabet by 3.8% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,666,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $405,131,000 after purchasing an additional 60,831 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Dbs Bank upped their price target on Alphabet from $400.00 to $460.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Citigroup restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, May 4th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $425.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, China Renaissance upped their price target on Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $412.65.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is testing Gemini-powered Search ads, including conversational and contextual ad formats that could improve monetization and help offset concerns that AI search may weaken its core advertising model.
• Positive Sentiment: Google and CrowdStrike helped take down a botnet targeting open-source software developers, reinforcing Alphabet’s cybersecurity capabilities and its role in defending the broader internet ecosystem.
• Positive Sentiment: Reports around Google I/O and Alphabet’s broader AI lineup, including new Gemini features and AI search tools, suggest the company is still aggressively innovating to defend its leadership in search and advertising.
• Neutral Sentiment: Google’s $15 billion Missouri AI data hub investment highlights long-term infrastructure spending to support AI growth, but the near-term stock impact is likely limited.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet has drawn market focus from traders and analysts, with prediction-market activity suggesting shares may stay near current levels in the short term.
• Negative Sentiment: DuckDuckGo reported rising installs as some users respond negatively to Google’s AI Search overhaul, raising investor concerns that the redesign could push a portion of users toward competitors.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged that one Google AI Search result was “more opinionated than it should be,” underscoring the risk of AI accuracy issues and potential user trust problems.
• Negative Sentiment: Federal prosecutors charged a Google employee with insider trading tied to Polymarket bets, creating a reputational overhang even though the case appears to involve an individual employee rather than core business operations.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $388.83 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $4.71 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.66, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.26. 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 Inc. has a 12-month low of $162.00 and a 12-month high of $408.61. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $342.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $323.73.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 6.41%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total value of $412,923.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $995,341.06. This trade represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 226,481 shares of company stock valued at $27,422,061. 11.61% of the stock is 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.