Here’s Why You Should Pay Attention to These Tech Giants Today

Alphabet To Face Record Anti-Trust Fine

Shares of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) are quite flattish on Monday morning. Over the weekend, the U.K.’s Telegraph reported that the European Commission will impose a record-breaking fine on Google in the next few weeks, for abuses of its online search dominance. According to the report, sources familiar with the issue said that officials were aiming at announcing a 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) fine before the summer break – even as soon as next month. However, details are still being closed, and the penalty could go as high as 6.6 billion euros (about $7.5 billion), which would widely surpass the highest anti-trust fine ever issued: the 1.1 billion euros ($1.25 billion) penalty received by Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) back in 2009. In addition, “Google will be banned from continuing to manipulate search results to favour itself and harm rivals,” the Telegraph assured. At the end of the first quarter, more than 140 funds in our database were long Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL). Interestingly, the largest stake was held by a newcomer: Natixis Global Asset Management’s Harris Associates. Over the period, the firm acquired 1.98 million shares of the company, valued at more than $1.47 billion as of March 31.

Microsoft Trending Ahead Of Ex-Dividend Date

Similar to Alphabet, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s stock is quite flat in the Morning hours, ahead of its ex-dividend date. Shareholders of record by May 17 will receive a dividend of $0.36 per share on June 9. Based on Friday’s closing price of $51.08, the annual dividend yield ascends to 2.82%, or roughly 82 basis points higher than the S&P 500 average. Among the firms that will likely benefit from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s dividend are First Eagle Investment Management, which last disclosed ownership of 23.62 million shares, worth more than $1.3 billion by March 31, and Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, which held 18.22 million shares at the end of the last quarter.

Yahoo! Spikes On Buffett’s Declarations

Finally, there’s Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), which is up by more than 2.2% on Monda, helped by reports that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has offered to financially back billionaire Dan Gilbert’s bid to buy the company. The Oracle of Omaha told CNBC that he is “an enormous admirer of Dan and what he has accomplished in Quicken Loans‎. Yahoo is not the type of thing I’d ever be an equity partner in. I don’t know the business and wouldn’t know how to evaluate it, but if Dan needed financing, with proper terms and protections, we would be a possible financing help,” he added. While Mr. Buffett’s Berkshire is not a Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) shareholder at the time, other major hedge funds are. Among them, we can count Jeffrey Smith’s Starboard Value LP, which declared holding 12.29 million shares, valued at $452 million, by March 31 – after boosting its exposure by 72% over the first quarter.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.