Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Holdings Lessened by Westchester Capital Management Inc.

Westchester Capital Management Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 109,967 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,770 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 4.4% of Westchester Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Westchester Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $18,238,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 43,005.6% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,086,250,000 after acquiring an additional 18,700,111 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 587.4% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,772,991,000 after purchasing an additional 9,135,056 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Alphabet by 14.4% in the first 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. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Alphabet by 116.4% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,437,957,000 after purchasing an additional 4,662,809 shares during the period. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its position in Alphabet by 18,810.2% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $807,700,000 after purchasing an additional 4,410,811 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Truist Financial raised their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.90.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. The trade was a 8.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of GOOGL opened at $164.76 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $167.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $170.36. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $127.90 and a twelve month high of $191.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.