Hourglass Capital LLC Reduces Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Hourglass Capital LLC lessened its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,840 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 460 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 1.7% of Hourglass Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Hourglass Capital LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,315,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,187,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $3,119,000. Cypress Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.1% in the first quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,213,000 after purchasing an additional 563 shares in the last quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Community Bank N.A. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,741,000 after purchasing an additional 2,790 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,192,275. The trade was a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 215,443 shares of company stock valued at $36,298,548. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GOOGL. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. BNP Paribas Exane reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $172.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, June 27th. BNP Paribas downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. JMP Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to a “market outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 31st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.61.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $181.56 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $170.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $173.07. The firm has a market cap of $2.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results 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 return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

About Alphabet

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.