KBC Group NV Sells 74,594 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

KBC Group NV reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.4% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,614,965 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 74,594 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 0.8% of KBC Group NV’s holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $249,738,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $3,119,000. Optivise Advisory Services LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares during the period. Community Bank N.A. increased its stake in Alphabet by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,741,000 after purchasing an additional 2,790 shares in the last quarter. Falcon Wealth Planning raised its holdings in Alphabet by 15.7% during the 1st quarter. Falcon Wealth Planning now owns 9,898 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,531,000 after buying an additional 1,340 shares during the period. Finally, Premier Fund Managers Ltd lifted its stake in Alphabet by 30.0% in the fourth quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 61,792 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,816,000 after buying an additional 14,262 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 261,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.87, for a total value of $5,553,275.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,620,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $447,712,890.52. This trade represents a 1.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 215,643 shares of company stock valued at $36,330,928. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. JMP Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to a “market outperform” rating and set a $220.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, June 27th. BNP Paribas Exane restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $172.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.95.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

GOOGL stock opened at $179.08 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.96, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $168.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $173.97.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

About Alphabet

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.