Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. Grows Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 26,992 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 594 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 2.0% of Hall Capital Management Co. Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,757,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter worth $4,317,606,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $78,839,544,000 after acquiring an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 11.4% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 43,865,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,783,364,000 after acquiring an additional 4,473,901 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its position in Alphabet by 11.8% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 33,403,871 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,034,992,000 after buying an additional 3,537,173 shares during the period. Finally, Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 178.3% during the first quarter. Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. now owns 4,003,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $619,163,000 after buying an additional 2,565,400 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.50, for a total transaction of $8,108,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,397,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $598,149,304. This trade represents a 1.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 246,150 shares of company stock valued at $55,805,379. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOGL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. Mizuho set a $295.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. JMP Securities raised their price objective on Alphabet from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $217.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $252.24.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $253.30 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $256.96. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $231.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $191.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.06 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.95%.

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.