Court Place Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Court Place Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,646 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 409 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.0% of Court Place Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Court Place Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,883,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co lifted its position in Alphabet by 0.3% in the first quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,187,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $3,119,000. Cypress Capital LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 4.1% in the first quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,213,000 after acquiring an additional 563 shares in the last quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Community Bank N.A. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% during the 4th 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. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,192,275. This trade represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 182,943 shares of company stock worth $31,223,348 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $182.00 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $171.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $173.13. The stock has a market cap of $2.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on GOOGL. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $203.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Westpark Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.82.

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.