Cornerstone Capital Inc. Reduces Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Cornerstone Capital Inc. cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 17.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 181,777 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 39,510 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 3.4% of Cornerstone Capital Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Cornerstone Capital Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $32,035,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Gimbal Financial increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.9% during the second quarter. Gimbal Financial now owns 2,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $489,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co now owns 16,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,981,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Silver Coast Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Silver Coast Investments LLC now owns 4,317 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $761,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. AM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 6,477 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,141,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bfsg LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 10,428 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,838,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on GOOGL. CIBC lifted their price target on Alphabet to $315.00 in a report on Monday, October 20th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective (up from $245.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Moffett Nathanson boosted their target price on Alphabet from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $290.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Melius Research lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $312.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total transaction of $7,910,825.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,402,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $584,699,785.79. This represents a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total value of $680,610.00. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 226,128 shares of company stock worth $61,326,372 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $321.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The firm has a market cap of $3.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.07. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $276.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $224.09. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $328.83.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

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.