Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Sold by Savant Capital LLC

Savant Capital LLC cut its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 10.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 106,410 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 11,778 shares during the quarter. Savant Capital LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $19,383,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $68,980,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,374,756 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 39,754.9% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $841,725,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010,548 shares during the period. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 143.7% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,072,197 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,288,201,000 after acquiring an additional 4,170,229 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,623,355.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 180,167 shares of company stock worth $29,762,606 over the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $190.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. DA Davidson started coverage on Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $170.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.08.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $163.59 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $164.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $165.32. The company has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.09, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $120.21 and a fifty-two week high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.60 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.44 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.27%.

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.