Brandes Investment Partners LP Cuts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Brandes Investment Partners LP decreased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 9.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 380,268 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 37,406 shares during the period. Brandes Investment Partners LP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $71,985,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.1% during the third quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $363,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its stake in Alphabet by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 728,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $120,834,000 after purchasing an additional 46,677 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,871,384,000 after buying an additional 337,031 shares in the last quarter. Apollon Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the third quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 49,192 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,158,000 after buying an additional 147 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 15.7% in the third quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 801,353 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $132,351,000 after buying an additional 108,787 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total value of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,376,238.74. The trade was a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GOOGL. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Robert W. Baird reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.59.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $165.06 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $2.01 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $181.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $147.22 and a 12-month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

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.