Westshore Wealth LLC Decreases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Westshore Wealth LLC decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 27.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,694 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,122 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 0.6% of Westshore Wealth LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Westshore Wealth LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,637,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after acquiring an additional 506 shares during the period. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.6% in the second quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $685,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 11.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $85,557,000 after acquiring an additional 48,805 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,495,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud revenue reportedly increased 82% in the second quarter, with backlog reaching $514 billion, while the Gemini app reached approximately 950 million monthly active users. The results reinforce the commercial demand supporting Alphabet’s AI and cloud investments. Google’s AI business is booming, so why are DeepMind’s biggest names quitting?
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors continue to highlight Alphabet’s strong cash generation, balance sheet and valuation relative to its growth prospects. Some market models see the shares reaching $400 as Cloud momentum and AI monetization continue. Price Prediction: Google Will Hit $400 on This Date
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s expanded Google Cloud partnership with AI lab Mirendil, reportedly worth more than $100 million over multiple years, provides another example of demand for its computing infrastructure. Mirendil Google Cloud deal

Alphabet Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $354.30 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.64. The stock has a market cap of $4.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.80, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $355.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $340.41. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $196.60 and a 1 year high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.42%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total transaction of $387,061.50. Following the sale, the director owned 1,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $545,941.03. This trade represents a 41.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The shares were 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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 600,547 shares of company stock worth $16,255,540. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Truist Financial set a $420.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. BMO Capital Markets set a $465.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $393.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $419.86.

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.