Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Sold by Maxi Investments CY Ltd

Maxi Investments CY Ltd lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 47.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,100 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 8,345 shares during the period. Maxi Investments CY Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,407,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after acquiring an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Alphabet by 15.9% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 66,050,135 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,503,291,000 after acquiring an additional 9,042,271 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 307.6% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,302,644 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,593,201,000 after acquiring an additional 7,774,811 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.2%

GOOGL stock opened at $201.00 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $181.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $172.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.43 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The firm had revenue of $96,428,000 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,383,200. This trade represents a 12.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 274,219 shares of company stock worth $49,674,273 in the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. BNP Paribas Exane restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $172.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $211.53.

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.