Capital Investment Counsel Inc Cuts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Capital Investment Counsel Inc reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 26,624 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 415 shares during the period. Capital Investment Counsel Inc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,692,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 242.9% in the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. IMA Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 85.7% in the 1st quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 36.4% in the 2nd quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on GOOGL. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $330.00 price target (up from $285.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on Alphabet from $260.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $307.84.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $323.44 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $328.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.90, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $265.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $216.20.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at $10,635,348.70. This trade represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.05, for a total value of $694,638.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 14,516 shares in the company, valued at $3,629,725.80. This represents a 16.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 225,174 shares of company stock worth $58,095,223 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

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.