Stephens Inc. AR Has $106.94 Million Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Stephens Inc. AR raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 341,456 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,844 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.3% of Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $106,938,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Kentucky Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 142.9% in the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $63,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway’s reported $10 billion commitment to Alphabet’s capital raise is a strong vote of confidence in the company’s AI and cloud strategy, helping validate the long-term investment case. Alphabet plans to raise $80 billion for AI goals, Berkshire to invest $10 billion
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street continues to frame Alphabet as a major AI beneficiary, with analysts reaffirming bullish price targets and noting rising demand for Google Cloud and AI infrastructure. Alphabet had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by Needham & Company LLC
• Neutral Sentiment: Lovable’s expanded multi-year Google Cloud deal highlights ongoing customer demand for Alphabet’s cloud services, but it is a modest business development rather than a major near-term catalyst. Lovable signs multi-year deal with Google Cloud to up usage 5x, source says
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage around the AI boom and Alphabet’s expanding role in the sector supports the growth narrative, but much of it is sentiment-driven rather than a direct earnings update. Alphabet to raise $84.75 billion in upsized equity offering to fund AI ambitions
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s massive $84.75 billion equity raise is stirring dilution concerns and signaling that AI infrastructure spending will remain extremely capital intensive, which has weighed on the stock. Alphabet to raise $84.75 billion in upsized equity offering to fund AI ambitions
• Negative Sentiment: UK regulators imposed new conduct requirements on Google Search, including giving publishers more control over AI use of their content, adding a fresh regulatory overhang for Alphabet’s search and AI businesses. UK regulator enforces new competition requirements for Google search

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet 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 transaction of $412,923.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $995,341.06. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total value of $2,481,078.77. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,293,309.12. This trade represents a 14.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 193,016 shares of company stock valued at $17,282,549 in the last quarter. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $445.00 target price (up from $425.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, April 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Loop Capital raised their target price on Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, DA Davidson raised their target price on Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.04.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $358.99 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $349.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $326.85. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $162.00 and a 1-year high of $408.61. The firm has a market cap of $4.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.23. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The business had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. Analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.41%.

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.