Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. Sells 29,667 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. decreased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 26.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 82,280 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 29,667 shares during the quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $13,646,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $75,144,172,000 after buying an additional 4,064,073 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,011,412,000 after acquiring an additional 238,403 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 35,412,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,344,778,000 after purchasing an additional 597,756 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 23,465,190 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,274,184,000 after purchasing an additional 418,204 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total value of $3,772,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,159,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $362,126,319.10. This trade represents a 1.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 32,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,136,807.48. This trade represents a 2.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,471,141 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of several research reports. Mizuho raised their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $210.00 price target (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.90.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $175.58 on Friday. 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 business’s 50 day simple moving average is $164.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $170.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $127.90 and a 12 month high of $191.75. The company has a market cap of $2.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.29, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

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.