WestEnd Advisors LLC Sells 7,892 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

WestEnd Advisors LLC lessened its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.3% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 116,802 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 7,892 shares during the period. WestEnd Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $18,062,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. Navigoe LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $51,000. Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $53,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $57,000. Finally, Marshall Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $59,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOGL. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Mizuho cut their target price on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.95.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $179.08 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $168.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $173.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The company has a market cap of $2.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.96, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. 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%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,575,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 255,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,695,000. This represents a 3.40% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $456,991,919.84. This represents a 1.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 215,643 shares of company stock valued at $36,330,928 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.