Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Sold by Washington Trust Advisors Inc.

Washington Trust Advisors Inc. trimmed its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 178,666 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 3,464 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 2.5% of Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $27,629,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Alphabet by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,672,198,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Wedbush set a $190.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Susquehanna reduced their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $203.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. DA Davidson decreased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.95.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $179.08 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $168.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $173.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.17 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,575,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 255,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,695,000. This trade represents a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 215,643 shares of company stock valued at $36,330,928. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.