Alberta Investment Management Corp Trims Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Alberta Investment Management Corp lessened its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 17.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 475,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 101,700 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 1.0% of Alberta Investment Management Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Alberta Investment Management Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $83,709,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 242.9% in the 1st quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. IMA Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 85.7% in the 1st quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 36.4% in the second 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 during the last quarter. Finally, MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $50,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on Alphabet from $260.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $300.00 price target (up from $265.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Roth Capital increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $307.84.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $319.95 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.86 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.55, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $328.83. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $267.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $217.64. 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 released its 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. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $296.64, for a total transaction of $9,640,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,304,619 shares in the company, valued at $683,642,180.16. This represents a 1.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total value of $800,786.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares in the company, valued at $3,383,884.14. This trade represents a 19.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 225,072 shares of company stock worth $58,074,027. 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.