Carlson Capital Management Cuts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Carlson Capital Management lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 63.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 9,115 shares during the quarter. Carlson Capital Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $803,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Black Creek Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1,360.0% during the 3rd quarter. Black Creek Investment Management Inc. now owns 109,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,329,000 after purchasing an additional 102,000 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,746,764,000 after purchasing an additional 12,070,681 shares during the period. Prospector Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Prospector Partners LLC now owns 64,570 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,450,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Clearstead Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 142,730 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,678,000 after purchasing an additional 9,161 shares during the period. Finally, IronBridge Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. IronBridge Private Wealth LLC now owns 32,349 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,233,000 after purchasing an additional 2,798 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total transaction of $3,502,575.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,325,513 shares in the company, valued at $362,012,608.71. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total transaction of $3,502,575.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,325,513 shares in the company, valued at $362,012,608.71. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 158,458 shares of company stock worth $26,375,053 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $179.22 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $115.35 and a one year high of $180.89. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $170.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $153.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.49, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $66.04 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $215.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $193.26.

Alphabet 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.