Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. Cuts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 21.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 540 shares during the period. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $361,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 42.9% during the second quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 17,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,173,000 after purchasing an additional 5,232 shares in the last quarter. Oxbow Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 34.0% during the second quarter. Oxbow Advisors LLC now owns 11,714 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,134,000 after buying an additional 2,974 shares during the last quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 8.5% during the second quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC now owns 5,192 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $946,000 after buying an additional 406 shares during the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 11.0% during the 2nd quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 258,249 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,040,000 after buying an additional 25,615 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 730,911 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $133,136,000 after acquiring an additional 11,964 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $222.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $190.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares in the company, valued at $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at $5,623,355.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 180,167 shares of company stock worth $29,762,606. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $163.59 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $164.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $165.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.09, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $120.21 and a 52 week high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.64 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.