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Tag: GOOG

  • Dakota Wealth Management Lowers Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Dakota Wealth Management Lowers Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Dakota Wealth Management reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG – Free Report) by 1.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 184,172 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,824 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 0.8% of Dakota Wealth Management’s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Dakota Wealth Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $33,781,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

    A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $390,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 151,624 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $27,811,000 after buying an additional 2,374 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 3.6% in the second quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 20,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,848,000 after purchasing an additional 731 shares during the period. Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC now owns 6,196 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,136,000 after buying an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.7% in the second quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 1,863,565 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $341,815,000 after buying an additional 83,482 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

    Insiders Place Their Bets

    In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares in the company, valued at $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total value of $118,572.52. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,209,888.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,655.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 156,565 shares of company stock worth $27,253,193. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

    Analyst Ratings Changes

    A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.86.

    Check Out Our Latest Report on GOOG

    Alphabet Stock Performance

    Shares of GOOG stock traded down $1.56 on Wednesday, hitting $167.40. The company had a trading volume of 1,173,380 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,267,342. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $177.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $164.32. The firm has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $121.46 and a twelve month high of $193.31. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

    Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

    Alphabet Dividend Announcement

    The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

    Alphabet Profile

    (Free Report)

    Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.

    Further Reading

    Want to see what other hedge funds are holding GOOG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG – Free Report).

    Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Receive News & Ratings for Alphabet Daily – Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for Alphabet and related companies with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.

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  • Colonial River Wealth Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Colonial River Wealth Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Colonial River Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG – Free Report) by 5.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the period. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $390,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

    Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Partnership Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Hoese & Co LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 62.5% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 260 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

    Alphabet Price Performance

    Shares of GOOG stock traded down $1.56 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $167.40. 1,173,380 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,267,342. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $121.46 and a fifty-two week high of $193.31. The firm has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $177.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $164.32.

    Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.44 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 EPS for the current year.

    Alphabet Dividend Announcement

    The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

    Analysts Set New Price Targets

    A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $182.86.

    Get Our Latest Analysis on GOOG

    Insider Transactions at Alphabet

    In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total value of $118,572.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,209,888.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total value of $118,572.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,209,888.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.58, for a total value of $3,973,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,235,511 shares in the company, valued at $394,746,532.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 156,565 shares of company stock valued at $27,253,193 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

    About Alphabet

    (Free Report)

    Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.

    Read More

    Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Receive News & Ratings for Alphabet Daily – Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for Alphabet and related companies with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.

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  • Retirement Guys Formula LLC Has $1.12 Million Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Retirement Guys Formula LLC Has $1.12 Million Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Retirement Guys Formula LLC grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG – Free Report) by 11.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,945 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 827 shares during the quarter. Retirement Guys Formula LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,120,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

    Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Totem Point Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 22.0% during the first quarter. Totem Point Management LLC now owns 3,171 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,857,000 after purchasing an additional 571 shares during the last quarter. Somerville Kurt F raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.3% during the 1st quarter. Somerville Kurt F now owns 118 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $330,000 after buying an additional 11 shares in the last quarter. BCK Partners Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth $2,564,000. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 53.2% in the first quarter. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. now owns 144 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $402,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fairfield Bush & CO. raised its stake in Alphabet by 6.8% during the first quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. now owns 3,370 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,412,000 after acquiring an additional 214 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

    Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

    Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James increased their price target on Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $146.33.

    Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on GOOG

    Alphabet Stock Performance

    Shares of GOOG stock opened at $155.87 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $145.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $139.74. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $102.38 and a 12 month high of $157.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.87, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

    Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $85.28 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.05 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.77 EPS for the current year.

    Insider Buying and Selling

    In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total value of $105,566.78. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,532,870.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 228,239 shares of company stock valued at $32,432,382 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

    Alphabet Profile

    (Free Report)

    Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.

    Further Reading

    Want to see what other hedge funds are holding GOOG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG – Free Report).

    Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Receive News & Ratings for Alphabet Daily – Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for Alphabet and related companies with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.

    ABMN Staff

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  • Magnolia Capital Management Ltd. Buys 1,015 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Magnolia Capital Management Ltd. Buys 1,015 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Magnolia Capital Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG – Free Report) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,390 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,015 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 2.1% of Magnolia Capital Management Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Magnolia Capital Management Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,310,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

    Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 61,587.1% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 130,046,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,539,004,000 after buying an additional 129,835,437 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 120,234,117 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,852,868,000 after buying an additional 4,348,188 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 95,941,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,649,838,000 after buying an additional 9,703,425 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 37.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 71,779,112 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,368,961,000 after buying an additional 19,612,974 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,269,184 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,550,942,000 after buying an additional 1,275,060 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

    Analyst Ratings Changes

    Several research analysts have issued reports on GOOG shares. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James upped their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $146.33.

    Read Our Latest Report on GOOG

    Alphabet Stock Performance

    Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $151.77 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $144.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $139.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.89 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.17, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $100.28 and a 52 week high of $155.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10.

    Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The company had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $85.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.05 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.77 EPS for the current year.

    Insider Activity at Alphabet

    In related news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 1,777,106 shares in the company, valued at approximately $243,854,485.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 1,777,106 shares in the company, valued at approximately $243,854,485.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.78, for a total transaction of $3,347,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,310,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $343,710,216.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 279,659 shares of company stock worth $39,460,310 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

    Alphabet Profile

    (Free Report)

    Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.

    Recommended Stories

    Want to see what other hedge funds are holding GOOG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG – Free Report).

    Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Receive News & Ratings for Alphabet Daily – Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for Alphabet and related companies with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.

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  • Amazon is worth more than Alphabet for the first time in 16 months

    Amazon is worth more than Alphabet for the first time in 16 months


    Earnings season is causing a reshuffling among the ranks of the largest U.S. companies.

    Amazon.com Inc.
    AMZN,
    +7.87%
    overtook Alphabet Inc.
    GOOG,
    +0.58%

    GOOGL,
    +0.86%
    and become the third-largest U.S. public company upon Friday’s close, after its results were well received by Wall Street and Alphabet’s earlier in the week got panned.

    Amazon edged out Alphabet only barely, with a closing market cap of $1.785 trillion compared with $1.777 trillion for Alphabet, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

    Read: Amazon says the ‘magic words.’ They could spur a $110 billion market-cap boost.

    The e-commerce giant hadn’t been valued above the Google parent company since Sept. 30, 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data. That was also the last time Amazon was the third-largest by market cap.

    Wall Street found plenty to like in Amazon’s latest report, including drastic improvement in operating income, upbeat commentary on the cloud and momentum within the retail business. Meanwhile, Alphabet’s earnings were met with a chillier reception as the company talked up heavy spending plans linked to its artificial-intelligence ambitions.

    The very top of the market-cap ranks has changed up as well lately, though admittedly with less of a tie to earnings. Microsoft Corp.’s
    MSFT,
    +1.84%
    closing valuation surpassed Apple Inc.’s
    AAPL,
    -0.54%
    on Jan. 12 for the first time since November 2021. While the two traded around the top spot in January, Microsoft has been sitting there since Jan. 25.

    Don’t miss: Microsoft earnings may have offered a big bullish clue about cloud growth

    Microsoft also rests alone in the $3 trillion club, with Apple, the only other U.S. company to ever claim membership, having fallen out of it.

    See also: Apple just did something unusual. Can it help the stock amid growth woes?



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  • Alphabet’s stock dips because advertising was good, but not good enough

    Alphabet’s stock dips because advertising was good, but not good enough


    Google parent Alphabet Inc.’s stock was tumbling late Tuesday, as a rebound in digital advertising fell short of analysts’ lofty expectations.

    The search-engine powerhouse reported a jump in fourth-quarter sales, chiefly through advertising, but Alphabet’s shares
    GOOGL,
    -1.34%

    GOOG,
    -1.16%
    fell 4% in after-hours trading.

    Total revenue was $86.3 billion, up 13% from $76 billion a year ago. Sales minus total acquisition costs (TAC) came in at $72.3 billion, compared with $63.1 billion a year ago.

    Alphabet reported fourth-quarter net income of $20.7 billion, or $1.64 a share, compared with net income of $13.6 billion, or $1.05 a share, in the year-ago quarter.

    “We are pleased with the ongoing strength in Search and the growing contribution from YouTube and Cloud. Each of these is already benefiting from our AI investments and innovation. As we enter the Gemini era, the best is yet to come,” Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said in a statement announcing the results.

    Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected on average net earnings of $1.59 a share on revenue of $85.3 billion and ex-TAC revenue of $71.2 billion.

    Google’s total advertising sales climbed to $65.5 billion from $59 billion a year ago, edging analysts’ average expectations of $65.8 billion. YouTube ad sales rose to $9.2 billion from $7.96 billion a year. Google Cloud rang up $9.2 billion in sales, up from $7.3 billion.

    Alphabet is also ramping up AI initiatives to improve operational efficiency and productivity for 2023 and beyond. The company is using AI in its finance organization and analytics, but Alphabet did not break out AI revenue in Tuesday’s earnings report.

    Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat told CNBC that gen-AI will be a focus of the call with analysts now taking place.

    Shares of Google have climbed 53% over the past 12 months. The S&P 500 index
    SPX
    has risen 21% the past year.



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  • Achmea Investment Management B.V. Has $58.39 Million Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Achmea Investment Management B.V. Has $58.39 Million Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)


    Achmea Investment Management B.V. lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG – Free Report) by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 442,810 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,808 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.3% of Achmea Investment Management B.V.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Achmea Investment Management B.V.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $58,385,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

    Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A bought a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. Intrepid Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Milestone Wealth LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 1,900.0% during the third quarter. Milestone Wealth LLC now owns 380 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 361 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.13% of the company’s stock.

    Alphabet Stock Performance

    Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $153.79 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $140.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $135.05. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.52, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.06. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $88.86 and a one year high of $154.76.

    Insider Activity at Alphabet

    In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.36, for a total value of $31,090.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,226 shares in the company, valued at $1,769,145.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.36, for a total transaction of $31,090.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,226 shares in the company, valued at $1,769,145.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.14, for a total value of $3,198,150.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,400,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $341,163,148.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 189,459 shares of company stock worth $25,949,772. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

    Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

    GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 25th. Raymond James increased their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $133.14.

    Get Our Latest Analysis on GOOG

    Alphabet Profile

    (Free Report)

    Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, hardware, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.

    Further Reading

    Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Receive News & Ratings for Alphabet Daily – Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for Alphabet and related companies with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.



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  • Sundar Pichai Sells 22,500 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock

    Sundar Pichai Sells 22,500 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock

    Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report) CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.11, for a total transaction of $3,152,475.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,422,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $339,443,236.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

    Sundar Pichai also recently made the following trade(s):

    • On Wednesday, December 20th, Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.43, for a total transaction of $3,182,175.00.

    Alphabet Stock Performance

    Alphabet stock opened at $137.39 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.72 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $136.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $132.42. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $85.57 and a 52-week high of $143.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 2.01.

    Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The information services provider reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $64.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.13 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 22.46% and a return on equity of 25.24%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

    Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

    Several research firms recently weighed in on GOOG. Raymond James initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, December 20th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $150.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 25th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $131.93.

    Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Alphabet

    Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

    A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 365,927,668 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $38,056,478,000 after buying an additional 1,230,697 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 94,153.5% in the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 200,558,295 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $24,261,537,000 after purchasing an additional 200,345,509 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 61,587.1% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 130,046,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,539,004,000 after buying an additional 129,835,437 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 120,234,117 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,852,868,000 after buying an additional 4,348,188 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 98,217,816 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,846,230,000 after acquiring an additional 882,830 shares during the period. 27.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

    About Alphabet

    (Get Free Report)

    Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, hardware, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.

    See Also

    Insider Buying and Selling by Quarter for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Receive News & Ratings for Alphabet Daily – Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for Alphabet and related companies with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.

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  • November's rally just erased two months of Fed tightening, economist says

    November's rally just erased two months of Fed tightening, economist says

    Financial conditions are now looser than in September, says economist

    Financial conditions in the U.S. are looser than in September, says economist.


    Getty Images

    The feel-good tone gripping markets in the home stretch of 2023 may not be what the Federal Reserve had penciled in for the holidays.

    The stock market in December, once again, has been knocking on the door of record levels, driven by optimism about easing inflation and potential Fed rate cuts next year.

    But while the prospect of double-digit equity gains this year would be a reprieve for investors after a brutal 2022, the latest rally also points to looser financial conditions.

    Ultimately, the risk of looser financial conditions is that they could backfire, particularly if they rub against the Fed’s own goal of keeping credit restrictive until inflation has been decisively tamed.

    Read: Inflation is falling but interest rates will be higher for longer. Way longer.

    Specifically, the November rally for the S&P 500 index
    SPX
    can be traced to the 10-year Treasury yield
    BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
    dropping to 4.1% on Thursday from a 16-year peak of 5% in October.

    Falling 10-year Treasury yields from a 5% peak in October coincides with a sharp rally in the S&P 500 at the tail end of 2023.


    Oxford Economics

    The Fed only exerts direct control over short-term rates, but 10-year and 30-year Treasury yields
    BX:TMUBMUSD30Y
    are important because they are a peg for pricing auto loans, corporate debt and mortgages.

    That makes long-term rates matter a lot to investors in stocks, bonds and other assets, since higher rates can lead to rising defaults, but also can crimp corporate earnings, growth and the U.S. economy.

    Michael Pearce, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, thinks the November rally may put Fed officials in a difficult spot ahead of next week’s Dec. 12 to 13 Federal Open Market Committee meeting — the eighth and final policy gathering of 2023.

    “The decline in yields and surge in equity prices more than fully unwinds the tightening in conditions seen since the September FOMC meeting,” Pearce said in a Thursday client note.

    The Fed next week isn’t expected to raise rates, but instead opt to keep its benchmark rate steady at a 22-year high in a 5.25% to 5.5% range, which was set in July. The hope is that higher rates will keep bringing inflation down to the central bank’s 2% annual target.

    Ahead of the Fed’s July meeting, stocks were extending a spring rally into summer, largely driven by shares of six meg-cap technology companies and AI optimism.

    From June: Nvidia officially closes in $1 trillion territory, becoming seventh U.S. company to hit market-cap milestone

    Rates in September were kept unchanged, but central bankers also drove home a “higher for longer” message at that meeting, by penciling in only two rate cuts in 2024, instead of four earlier. That spooked markets and triggered a string of monthly losses in stocks.

    Pearce said he expects the Fed next week to “push back against the idea that rate cuts could come onto the agenda anytime soon,” but also to “err on the side of leaving rates high for too long.”

    That might mean the first rate cut comes in September, he said, later than market odds of a 52.8% chance of the first cut in March, as reflected by Thursday by the CME FedWatch Tool.

    Stocks were higher Thursday, poised to snap a three-session drop. A day earlier, the S&P 500 closed 5.2% off its record high set nearly two years ago, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA
    was 2% away from its record close and the Nasdaq Composite Index
    COMP
    was almost 12% below its November 2021 record, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

    Related: What investors can expect in 2024 after a 2-year battle with the bond market

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  • The Nasdaq just fell into a correction. Now what?

    The Nasdaq just fell into a correction. Now what?

    The Nasdaq Composite Index fell into its 70th correction in history on Wednesday, as surging long-term Treasury yields increased borrowing costs and weighed on stocks.

    The interest rate sensitive Nasdaq
    COMP
    barreled higher in the year’s first half, in part on optimism about a potential Federal Reserve pivot away from rate hikes to fight inflation, but stocks have been under fire in recent months as the Fed dialed up its message that interest rates could will stay higher for longer.

    The tech-heavy equity index fell 2.4% on Wednesday to close below the 12,922.216 threshold, marking a drop of a least 10% from its prior peak, which was set in mid-July at 14,358.02, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

    That met the common definition for a correction in an asset’s value and is the Nasdaq’s 70th close in correction territory since the index’s inception in February 1971.

    Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth Management, said the sharp rise in long-term Treasury yields has spooked investors, especially those in highflying, high-growth technology stocks where rising rates can be particularly corrosive.

    Pavlik likened the dynamic to the spending power of a lottery winner hitting a jackpot when rates are at 2% versus someone who wins when rates are closer to 10%.

    He also expects the 10-year Treasury yield
    BX:TMUBMUSD10Y,
    which rose to 4.952% Wednesday, to top out at 5.25% to 5.5% and likely complicate any recovery for the Nasdaq.

    In the past 20 corrections for the Nasdaq, it took an average of three months for performance to improve, with index then gaining 14.4% on average a year later, according to Dow Jones Industrial Average.

    Nasdaq corrections are usually followed by a bounce in a few months


    Dow Jones Market Data

    The damage on Wednesday was most acute in shares of highflying technology stocks, including Alphabet Inc.
    GOOG,
    -9.60%
    as shares skid 9.5%, after it reported earnings that were overshadowed by downbeat performance for its Google Cloud business. Spillover also hit shares of rival cloud computing giant Amazon.com Inc.,
    AMZN,
    -5.58%
    with its shares slumping 5.6%

    “You’re feeling the pressure in some big-name stocks,” Pavlik said. “But this too will, at some point, end. But concerns about the Fed are still in the forefront of everybody’s minds.”

    The Nasdaq was still up 22.5% on the year through Wednesday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA
    was down 0.3% and the S&P 500 index
    SPX
    was up 9% in 2023, according to FactSet.

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  • Microsoft and Alphabet results show Wall Street only cares about AI

    Microsoft and Alphabet results show Wall Street only cares about AI

    Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc. both reported mostly strong results Tuesday, but the disparate reactions from investors showed that Wall Street only cares about artificial intelligence right now.

    While Microsoft shares
    MSFT,
    +0.37%
    rose 4% in after-hours trading following the company’s latest report, Alphabet shares
    GOOG,
    +1.61%

    GOOGL,
    +1.69%
    dropped 6% as Wall Street got the sense that AI is manifesting differently in the companies’ cloud businesses.

    Microsoft surprised investors with 28% constant-currency growth in its Azure cloud-computing business, above the company’s own forecast and the projection for 25.6% growth that analysts were modeling on average. While Microsoft continues to see “optimization” challenges as customers remain conscious about their spending, the company is also benefiting from AI tailwinds in the cloud.

    Companies looking to beef up their AI offerings are often looking to add AI services for their customers through additional cloud services, so they don’t have to do as much internal development themselves. In addition, AI offerings ranging from chatbots to tools that can streamline the writing of reports require ever more computing power, and both Azure and Google Cloud are starting to offer new software applications to address those needs.

    Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella called AI a “unique and different” factor that was helping Azure trends. “Given our leadership position, we are seeing complete new project starts, which are AI projects,” he said in response to an analyst question about the sustainability of cloud growth rates.

    In addition, Microsoft, which has invested heavily in ChatGPT-creator OpenAI, offers an Azure OpenAI service that more than 18,000 organizations are now using. Some of these customers are new to Azure.

    Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood forecast that Azure revenue growth should be around 26% in constant currency in the fiscal second quarter, driven by new workload trends and with the growing contributions from AI.

    Investors seem less confident that Alphabet is seeing the same tailwinds in its Google Cloud business, especially as that segment showed its slowest quarterly growth since Google began breaking out results that way back in 2019. Cloud revenue of $8.4 billion, with growth of 22%, was $250 million shy of consensus estimates on Wall Street, according to Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Baird. That overshadowed an upbeat performance in the company’s advertising business.

    When one analyst asked Alphabet executives about the deceleration in the revenue growth of its cloud business, Chief Executive Sundar Pichai was vague but said that customers are being selective of where they are spending their IT budgets.

    “On cloud, what I would say is overall, we have definitely started seeing customers looking to optimize spend,” Pichai said. “We leaned into it to help customers, given some other challenges they were facing, and so that was a factor.”

    Alphabet is seeing “a lot of interest in AI,” but it remains to be seen whether that’s contributing materially to its financial performance just yet.

    “Google Cloud missed consensus revenue expectations (although in line with Baird) on slowing growth, and we believe consistent with the view that newer Gen-AI workloads will take time to move the needle,” Sebastian wrote in a note to clients.

    Insider Intelligence senior analyst Max Willens added that Google Cloud is facing tough competition, and while the business seems to have traction with AI startups that “may bear fruit in the long run, it is not currently helping Google Cloud enough to satisfy investors.”

    Wall Street clearly is looking to AI to fuel better growth rates and help offset sluggish macroeconomic trends. The poster child for that dynamic is Nvidia Corp.
    NVDA,
    +1.60%    ,
    which is expected to single-handedly drive earnings growth for the information technology sector thanks to booming demand for its AI hardware.

    Read: Big-tech results will decide ‘where we go from here’ amid investor caution. They would fall if it weren’t for this one company

    Given economic pressures, it’s becoming obvious that companies without much of an AI story to contribute this quarter will continue to fall out of favor with investors.

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  • GOOG Stock Price | Alphabet Inc. Cl C Stock Quote (U.S.: Nasdaq) | MarketWatch

    GOOG Stock Price | Alphabet Inc. Cl C Stock Quote (U.S.: Nasdaq) | MarketWatch

    Alphabet Inc. Cl C

    Alphabet, Inc. engages in the business of delivering online advertising, cloud-based solutions that provide enterprise customers with infrastructure and platform services, the provision of communication and collaboration tools, and sales of other products and services such as apps and in-app purchases, hardware, and subscription-based products. It operates under the Google Services and Google Cloud segments. The Google Services segment includes ads, Android, Chrome, hardware, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube. The Google Cloud segment offers Google Cloud Platform and Google Workspace. The company was founded by Lawrence E. Page and Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin on October 2, 2015 and is headquartered in Mountain View, CA.

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  • Psst: Here’s why Google’s antitrust trial against the Department of Justice isn’t being talked about much

    Psst: Here’s why Google’s antitrust trial against the Department of Justice isn’t being talked about much

    Google’s top executives have long established a reputation of saying as little as possible on most topics: Earnings calls. Product development plans. Management moves.

    Legal matters are certainly on the list, as the company’s antitrust trial with the Justice Department concludes its third week. The public is barred from listening to the 10-week federal trial, and reporters often encounter a courtroom sealed to the public.

    Secrecy around the nonjury trial belies the magnitude of the case, the biggest of its kind in tech, if not American business, since the DoJ tangled with Microsoft Corp.
    MSFT,
    +0.67%
    in the 1990s and early 2000s. After years of investigation, the Justice Department claims Google used contracts worth billions of dollars with Apple Inc.
    AAPL,
    +0.30%
    and other phone makers to elbow aside competing search engines that could lead to changes in Google’s business practices — even a breakup of the tech giant.

    Google says it makes the best product, and vendors have a choice to work with other search-engine providers. In his opening statement, Google attorney John Schmidtlein said companies and consumers use Google’s popular search engine “because it delivers value to them, not because they have to.”

    Asked by MarketWatch to comment further, a company spokesman declined.

    Read more: Google spent billions to build an illegal monopoly, Justice Department says as trial gets under way

    Alphabet Inc.
    GOOGL,
    -1.10%

    GOOG,
    -0.96%    ,
    Google’s parent company, has steadfastly redacted information about the contracts at issue in the case, citing confidential company information, and Google’s lawyers — as well as those at Apple — have consistently asked to seal the courtroom. Before opening statements started on Sept. 12, nearly two-thirds of Google’s motions and responses in the case were sealed, according to the New York Times.

    At the same time, criticism has rained on U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who has deferred to requests by Google and interested parties like Apple to hold testimony behind closed doors. (On Tuesday, Mehta countered he was relying on federal attorneys to resist persistent attempts by Google and other tech companies to seal the courtroom. He later pushed lawyers to ask more questions in public and wanted to unseal closed-session testimony.)

    “A judge’s job isn’t to simply accept a party’s claim that public access to a trial would cause the sky to fall,” The Freedom of the Press Foundation said in a blog post Wednesday.

    A cone of silence around such a historic case that could lead to changes to Google’s business practices or a breakup of the company is not surprising, given what is at stake.

    “A trial should be open to the public, but there is a balancing act in affording companies some sort of privacy,” lawyer Abiel Garcia said in an interview. “Access to documents does disclose how a company thinks. There is a tension here in how Google wants its users to be transparent about their data, but doesn’t tell you what they are doing.”

    Garcia, who presented in a preliminary injunction hearing before Mehta in 2015, said the judge has done an admirable job of respecting Google’s corporate secrets while gradually encouraging more public questioning and disclosures.

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  • Google spent billions to build an illegal monopoly, Justice Department says as trial gets under way

    Google spent billions to build an illegal monopoly, Justice Department says as trial gets under way

    Federal prosecutors opened a landmark antitrust trial against Alphabet Inc.’s Google on Tuesday with charges the search-engine giant for years intentionally snuffed competition through exclusive contracts with wireless carriers and phone makers.

    Google
    GOOGL,
    -1.15%
    GOOG,
    -1.21%
    spent billions of dollars on such contracts to cement its dominant position, a clear violation of U.S. antitrust law, prosecutors said.

    “This case is about the future of the internet, and whether Google’s search engine will ever face meaningful competition,” Justice Department lawyer Kenneth Dintzer told the court. He said Google pays more than $10 billion a year to Apple Inc.
    AAPL,
    -1.71%
    and other companies to ensure Google is the default or only search engine available on browsers and mobile devices used by millions of consumers.

    Google’s search business accounted for more than half of the $283 billion in revenue Alphabet recorded in 2022. Search in large part has fueled the company’s $1.7 trillion market valuation.

    Google attorney John Schmidtlein countered that companies and consumers use Google’s popular search engine “because it delivers value to them, not because they have to.”

    The legal jousting in a Washington, D.C., federal court kicked off what is expected to be a contentious multiweek trial that could be one of the biggest domestic antitrust trials since the federal government tussled with Microsoft Corp.
    MSFT,
    -1.83%
    in the 1990s. Like that case, this one involves arguments over tying together multiple proprietary products.

    To that end, Justice Department officials allege Google’s contracts ensure that Android devices come with Google apps and services, including Google search, preinstalled.

    Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai heads a witness list of senior executives and former employees from Google, Apple, Microsoft and Samsung Electronics Co.
    005930,
    +1.28%    .

    “This feedback loop, this wheel has been turning for 12 years, and it always turns to Google’s advantage,” Dintzer said.

    Conversely, Schmidtlein said Apple’s decision to make Google the default search engine in its Safari browser underscores that Google’s search engine is the product consumers prefer. “Apple repeatedly chose Google as the default because Apple believed it was the best experience for its users,” he said.

    The Google case “could not be more different” from Microsoft litigation in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Schmidtlein asserted. “The evidence will show that Microsoft’s Bing search engine failed to win customers because Microsoft did not invest [and] did not innovate,” he said. “At every critical juncture, the evidence will show that they were beaten in the market.”

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  • Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director John L. Hennessy Sells 200 Shares of Stock

    Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director John L. Hennessy Sells 200 Shares of Stock

    Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report) Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.30, for a total transaction of $27,460.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 7,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,041,283.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

    Alphabet Trading Up 0.4 %

    GOOG stock opened at $137.74 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.74 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.06. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $83.45 and a one year high of $138.58. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $128.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $117.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.14 and a current ratio of 2.17.

    Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The information services provider reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $74.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 21.05% and a return on equity of 23.49%. The business’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.21 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 5.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

    Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

    A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $120.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $123.00 to $140.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Wedbush started coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, August 21st. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $145.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $130.94.

    Get Our Latest Analysis on GOOG

    Institutional Inflows and Outflows

    Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Financial Advisors Network Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% in the first quarter. Financial Advisors Network Inc. now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $450,000 after buying an additional 7 shares during the period. Turim 21 Investimentos Ltda. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.8% in the first quarter. Turim 21 Investimentos Ltda. now owns 82 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $229,000 after buying an additional 8 shares during the period. West Michigan Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.7% in the first quarter. West Michigan Advisors LLC now owns 252 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $704,000 after buying an additional 9 shares during the period. Somerville Kurt F increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.3% in the first quarter. Somerville Kurt F now owns 118 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $330,000 after buying an additional 11 shares during the period. Finally, Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.4% in the first quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,182 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,301,000 after acquiring an additional 16 shares in the last quarter. 27.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

    About Alphabet

    (Get Free Report)

    Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, hardware, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.

    Featured Stories

    Insider Buying and Selling by Quarter for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)

    Receive News & Ratings for Alphabet Daily – Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for Alphabet and related companies with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.

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  • Sorry, Elon, a ‘super app’ is never going to fly in the U.S.

    Sorry, Elon, a ‘super app’ is never going to fly in the U.S.

    “Super apps” have never truly existed in the United States, and it is apparent at this point that they never will.

    That isn’t stopping some executives and investment analysts from still dreaming of becoming one-stop shops for their users’ needs, something only a small handful of apps in Asia have managed to do. The most prominent is Elon Musk, the Tesla Inc. TSLAchief executive who purchased Twitter last year and has proclaimed that he will turn it into an “everything app” called X that resembles super apps in China.

    “I…

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  • Heineken is the latest Western corporate giant to exit Russia

    Heineken is the latest Western corporate giant to exit Russia

    Beer giant Heineken N.V. is the latest Western company to exit Russia, announcing Friday the sale of its Russian operations to Arnest Group for one euro.

    Under the terms of the deal, all of Heineken’s
    HEIA,
    +0.77%
    remaining assets, including seven breweries in Russia, will transfer to the new owners, the beer giant said in a statement. The Russian Arnest Group has also taken over responsibility for Heineken’s 1,800 employees in Russia.

    Heineken began the process of exiting Russia in March 2022, following that country’s invasion of Ukraine. The company said it expects to incur a total cumulative loss of €300 million ($324.1 million) as a result of its exit.

    “We have now completed our exit from Russia. Recent developments demonstrate the significant challenges faced by large manufacturing companies in exiting Russia,” Heineken CEO Dolf van den Brink said in a statement. “While it took much longer than we had hoped, this transaction secures the livelihoods of our employees and allows us to exit the country in a responsible manner.”

    Related: Unilever CEO vows to look at Russian operations with ‘fresh eyes’ as pressure to exit the country mounts

    A number of major Western corporations, including U.S. giants Apple Inc.
    AAPL,
    +1.26%    ,
     Alphabet Inc. 
    GOOGL,
    +0.08%

    GOOG,
    +0.21%    ,
     Amazon.com Inc.
    AMZN,
    +1.08%    ,
     International Business Machines  Corp. 
    IBM,
    +1.25%
    and McDonald’s Corp. 
    MCD,
    +0.79%    ,
    have left Russia in response to Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

    Earlier this week, DP Eurasia, the master franchiser of the Domino’s Pizza Inc.
    DPZ,
    +0.49%
    brand in Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, also announced its exit from Russia.

    But Heineken is “no hero,” according to Mark Dixon, the founder of the Moral Rating Agency, an organization set up after the invasion of Ukraine to examine whether companies were carrying out their promises of exiting Russia. “It failed to leave Russia for a year and a half,” he told MarketWatch via email. “The explanation that it took longer than expected doesn’t hold water, because of course it’s difficult to find a buyer if you remain so long a pariah state.”

    The Ukraine Solidarity Project said that Heineken’s move should increase the pressure on companies that remain in Russia, such as consumer-goods giant Unilever PLC
    ULVR,
    +0.44%    .
    “The point here is that major companies, like @Heineken, are and have taken loses of hundreds of millions and billions in leaving the Russian market. It is possible,” the Ukraine Solidarity Project tweeted Friday. “We’re sure @Unilever can do it, too.”

    Related: WeWork, Carl’s Jr., Unilever and Shell among companies slammed by Yale over operations in Russia

    The Ukraine Solidarity Project recently launched a high-profile campaign urging Unilever to get out of Russia, using images of Ukrainian veterans injured in the war with Russia. Last month, activists from the Ukraine Solidarity Project held up a giant poster featuring the veterans outside Unilever’s London headquarters.

    The Moral Rating Agency has also reiterated its calls for Unilever to end its Russian operations. 

    “We have always said we would keep our position in Russia under close review,” a Unilever spokesperson told MarketWatch earlier this month. The spokesperson also directed MarketWatch to a statement on the war in Ukraine that the company released in February 2023.

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  • ‘Magnificent Seven’ stocks are losing some of their shine, but their bonds are doing fine

    ‘Magnificent Seven’ stocks are losing some of their shine, but their bonds are doing fine

    The so-called Magnificent Seven grouping of technology stocks lost some of its luster this week after four of the seven moved into correction territory, meaning their stocks have fallen at least 10% from their recent peaks.

    The corporate-bond market, in contrast, seems to like all seven names.

    The group is made up of Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.
    META,
    -0.65%    ,
    Apple Inc.
    AAPL,
    +0.28%    ,
    Microsoft Corp.
    MSFT,
    -0.13%    ,
    Nvidia Corp.
    NVDA,
    -0.10%    ,
    Amazon. com Inc.
    AMZN,
    -0.57%    ,
    Google parent Alphabet Inc.
    GOOGL,
    -1.89%

    GOOG,
    -1.80%
    and Tesla Inc.
    TSLA,
    -1.70%    .

    One caveat: Tesla has no outstanding bonds. In the past, the electric-car maker issued convertible bonds, but they have all been converted into equity.

    The group is credited with helping drive the stock market’s gains in the first half of the year, driven by excitement about artificial intelligence. But the rally has stalled in recent weeks as investors have fretted over the potential for U.S. interest-rate increases, surging Treasury yields and China worries, with property developer Evergrande filing for U.S. bankruptcy protection late Thursday.

    On Thursday, Meta followed Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia into correction territory, as MarketWatch’s Emily Bary reported. Tesla, meanwhile, is in a bear market, meaning it’s down more than 20% from its recent peak.

    Read: Have AI stocks like Nvidia reached bubble territory? Here’s what history can tell us.

    The following series of charts from data-solutions provider BondCliQ Media Services show how many bonds each company has issued by maturity and how they have traded as the stocks have pulled back.

    The first chart shows that Microsoft has by far the most bonds, mostly in the 30-year bucket. The software and cloud giant has more than $50 billion in long-term debt, according to its 2023 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Outstanding Magnificent Seven debt by maturity bucket.


    Source: BondCliQ Media Services

    This chart shows trading volumes over the last 10 days, divided by trade type. The green shows customer buying, while the red is customer selling. The blue shows dealer-to-dealer flows. Microsoft, for example, has seen almost $1.3 billion in customer buying from dealers in the last 10 days and $960 million in customer sales to dealers.

    Magnificent Seven debt trading volumes (last 10 days).


    Source: BondCliQ Media Services

    This chart shows that every name in the group has enjoyed better net buying in the last 10 days, with Microsoft leading the way.

    Net customer flow of Magnificent Seven debt (last 10 days).


    Source: BondCliQ Media Services

    This chart shows spread performance over the last 50 days for an intermediate-term bond from each of the seven issuers. Most have tightened or remained steady over the period.

    Historical spread performance of Magnificent Seven debt.


    Source: BondCliQ Media Services

    Read also: Red flags waving for tech stocks as AI bounce fades, China fears escalate

    Apple’s stock entered correction Wednesday upon falling more than 10% from its July 31 peak of $196.45. The company sells mainly discretionary products, and right now “consumers are still being pinched” and thinking more carefully about where they spend their money, according to Matt Stucky, senior portfolio manager for equities at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management.

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  • Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq post gains as big tech stocks rebound

    Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq post gains as big tech stocks rebound

    U.S. stocks closed higher on Monday, with the Dow flipping positive near the closing bell, as technology stocks bounced back. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA rose about 26 points, or 0.1%, ending near 35,308, according to preliminary FactSet data. The S&P 500 index SPX scored a 0.6% gain and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP closed up 1.1%, booking its best daily percentage climb since July 28, according to FactSet data. The S&P 500’s information technology sector outperformed with a 1.9% gain, while the communication services segment rose 1%. The rally saw shares of Meta Platforms META, Apple Inc. AAPL, Alphabet…

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  • Regulators open floodgates for driverless taxis in San Francisco, whether they’re wanted or not

    Regulators open floodgates for driverless taxis in San Francisco, whether they’re wanted or not

    State regulators on Thursday opened the floodgates for more robotaxis on the streets of San Francisco.

    After a contentious, seven-hour meeting, the California Public Utilities Commission — which oversees taxis and autonomous vehicles, among things — approved two resolutions to broadly expand driverless taxi service from Alphabet’s
    GOOG,
    +0.05%

    GOOGL,
    +0.02%
    Waymo and GM’s
    GM,
    -5.79%
    Cruise.

    On a pair of 3-1 votes, regulators approved allowing Waymo and Cruise to offer fared driverless rides across San Francisco, at all hours of the day, with an unlimited number of vehicles.

    While the driverless vehicles are already ubiquitous on city streets, San Francisco is now set to become the first U.S. city with two fleets of robotaxis that will be able to fully compete with taxis and ride-hailing services.

    “Today’s permit marks the true beginning of our commercial operations in San Francisco,” Tekedra Mawakana, co-CEO of Waymo, said in a blog post.  “We’re incredibly grateful for this vote of confidence from the CPUC, and to the communities and riders who have supported our service.” 

    Waymo said it expects “incredibly high demand,” and will be expanding its robotaxi service incrementally.

    Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said he was “thrilled” by the votes. “It’s a huge milestone for the AV industry, but even more importantly a signal to the country that CA prioritizes progress over our tragic status quo,” he tweeted.

    The expansion was opposed by San Francisco city officials, who say autonomous-driving technology is not ready for prime time, and that the companies need to be more transparent in how they operate. On Wednesday, the city’s fire department released details of 55 incidents so far this year where driverless cars interfered in emergency scenes.

    Read more: Driverless cars are driving San Francisco crazy — ‘They are not ready for prime time’

    That’s just the tip of the iceberg: Jeffrey Tumlin, the head of San Francisco’s transportation agency, told MarketWatch in July that the city was seeing “up to 90 incidents per month … of varying degrees, some are minor, some are major obstructions.” Those included instances of autonomous cars stopping in the middle of traffic, crashes and other driving hazards.

    While acknowledging the positives of driverless technology — which its advocates say is much safer than human drivers — Tumlin said the city would like a more gradual expansion of autonomous cars, with limitations, like the next level of a “learner’s permit.”

    Regulation of autonomous vehicles, however, is up to the state.

    The PUC meeting had been delayed twice, and Thursday’s meeting featured public comment from more than 150 people voicing their opinions on both sides of the issue.

    PUC Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma was the sole dissenter on Thursday’s votes, which were absent one member. She told the hearing that there was no rush to make a decision, and advocated delaying the vote again. She noted that Cruise and Waymo claim to have maintained a good safety record, but that there were discrepancies about the data submitted to regulators. “Passengers should not be endangered, first responders should not be prevented from doing their jobs,” she said.

    Alice Reynolds, the president of the CPUC, argued that this was an incremental approval, echoing comments by Commissioner John Reynolds, a former managing counsel at Cruise who did not recuse himself from voting, that the California DMV has already given the companies a permit to operate.

    “We do expect the autonomous-vehicle companies to engage with first responders,” Reynolds said. “In the meantime the resolutions before us to meet our requirements.”

    Teamsters vice president Peter Finn blasted the decision, saying it was “irresponsible and shows a complete disregard for public safety.”

    “Public safety decisions should not be made by regulatory bodies that are in the pocket of Big Tech,” Finn said in a statement, adding that the Teamsters support pending state legislation that would require a trained human operator in autonomous vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds, which would include most trucks.

    A number of companies have autonomous cars driving on San Francisco streets, but only Cruise and Waymo had been approved for taxi service, with limitations. Earlier this week, the two companies disclosed how many driverless vehicles they operate in San Francisco: Cruise runs 100 vehicles during the day and 300 at night, while Waymo has 250 robotaxis operating.

    That number could soon grow significantly.

    Cruise’s Vogt said in an earnings call last month that Cruise could add “several thousand” robotaxis to San Francisco in an effort to create a disruptive service resembling Uber.

    Therese Poletti contributed to this report.

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