BankChampaign National Association Makes New $2.58 Million Investment in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

BankChampaign National Association acquired a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 8,967 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,579,000. Alphabet comprises approximately 2.6% of BankChampaign National Association’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. NewEdge Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.8% in 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 in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 89,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $25,679,000 after acquiring an additional 2,269 shares during the last quarter. Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd as trustee for Retail Employees Superannuation Trust bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $28,902,000. W.G. Shaheen & Associates DBA Whitney & Co grew its position in Alphabet by 17.1% during 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 buying an additional 17,415 shares during the period. Finally, KLCM Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 66.1% during the 4th quarter. KLCM Advisors Inc. now owns 22,877 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,161,000 after buying an additional 9,105 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. DZ Bank raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. 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. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on Alphabet from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Six research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $419.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total value of $3,142,911.42. Following the sale, the insider owned 75,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,298,044.10. The trade was a 10.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company’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 transaction, the director owned 1,481 shares in the company, valued at $545,941.03. The trade was a 41.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 valued at $16,255,540. 11.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of GOOGL 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 firm has a market cap of $4.33 trillion, a PE ratio of 17.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.24. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $196.60 and a 1-year high of $408.61. The company has a 50-day moving average of $355.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $340.41.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its 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. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

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 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.