Occidental Asset Management LLC Trims Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Occidental Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 20.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,578 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,910 shares during the quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,138,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. NewEdge Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 887,209 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $277,696,000 after purchasing an additional 93,293 shares during the period. PFG Investments LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 89,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $25,679,000 after buying an additional 2,269 shares in the last quarter. Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd as trustee for Retail Employees Superannuation Trust bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,902,000. W.G. Shaheen & Associates DBA Whitney & Co lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.1% in the fourth 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. Finally, KLCM Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 66.1% in the fourth quarter. KLCM Advisors Inc. now owns 22,877 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,161,000 after acquiring an additional 9,105 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 represents a 10.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total value of $387,061.50. Following the completion of the sale, 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 451,843 shares of company stock worth $12,343,852. 11.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $346.59 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $4.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.41, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.24. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $206.20 and a 12 month high of $408.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $349.62 and a 200 day moving average of $341.86.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%.The company had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.07 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.5 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 4.42%.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud and AI remain the main growth drivers. Rising Cloud revenue, AI adoption and a reported $514 billion backlog strengthen Alphabet’s competitive position against Microsoft and Amazon, although capacity constraints could limit near-term execution. Rising Cloud Revenue Strengthens Alphabet Against MSFT & AMZN
• Positive Sentiment: New Gemini and AI Mode features could increase user engagement and monetization. Google is expanding AI Mode to track flight prices and assist with hotel bookings, while reviews of its personal-intelligence tools suggest broader consumer adoption. Employees are also reportedly testing a next-generation Gemini Flash model. Google’s AI Mode can now track flight prices, help book hotels, and more
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment and technical momentum remain favorable. Brokerages maintain an average “Buy” recommendation, while technical commentary points to support above approximately $340. Alphabet’s valuation, margins and cash generation are viewed as attractive relative to many AI peers. Alphabet Receives Average Recommendation of Buy
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s custom-chip strategy is creating demand for AI infrastructure. Marvell’s large Google-related AI-chip opportunity highlights Alphabet’s willingness to invest in proprietary computing capacity, potentially supporting long-term performance and reducing reliance on outside suppliers. Marvell’s Google AI-chip opportunity
• Neutral Sentiment: Google changed its European spam and site-reputation policy. The adjustment is intended to address European Commission concerns and reduce the risk of an antitrust fine, but it may affect how Google ranks publisher content and reflects ongoing regulatory pressure. Google changes spam policy in EU to avert antitrust fine
• Negative Sentiment: Legal risks continue to weigh on the investment case. Multiple law firms announced securities-fraud investigations, while Google agreed to a $353 million settlement with UK app developers. These announcements do not establish wrongdoing but could create financial and reputational costs. Google agrees to settle UK app developers’ lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: The FTC is reportedly considering action involving YouTube. The investigation concerns account suspensions and possible consumer-protection violations, adding another regulatory overhang for Alphabet. US FTC probes YouTube over social media policies

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Truist Financial set a $420.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Pivotal Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $475.00 price objective (up from $470.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Zacks Research cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $411.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, President Capital upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $375.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $420.19.

Alphabet 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.