Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Position Cut by Ballentine Partners LLC

Ballentine Partners LLC trimmed its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 145,165 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 5,975 shares during the quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $22,448,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $39,000. Elite Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $42,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. Finally, EQ Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $49,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and set a $203.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. BNP Paribas cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.68.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $185.06 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.63, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $172.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $173.12. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 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 value of $1,575,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 255,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,695,000. The trade was a 3.40% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $466,000,536.96. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 215,843 shares of company stock valued at $37,288,490. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.