Great Diamond Partners LLC Lowers Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Great Diamond Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 35.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,461 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 6,897 shares during the quarter. Great Diamond Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,067,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. WD Rutherford LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. WD Rutherford LLC now owns 31,715 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,260,000 after acquiring an additional 669 shares in the last quarter. Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. now owns 147,489 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,461,000 after acquiring an additional 3,421 shares in the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE lifted its position in Alphabet by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 28,097 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,660,000 after acquiring an additional 1,231 shares during the period. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 4.4% during the third quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 17,694 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,935,000 after acquiring an additional 752 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lodestar Private Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% in the third quarter. Lodestar Private Asset Management LLC now owns 9,554 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,584,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GOOGL. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.90.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of GOOGL opened at $180.35 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.92, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $127.90 and a 1-year high of $191.75. The company has a 50-day moving average of $163.54 and a 200 day moving average of $169.74.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,765,346. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total transaction of $115,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 29,324 shares in the company, valued at $4,838,460. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 241,752 shares of company stock worth $40,156,829. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.