Brick & Kyle Associates Cuts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Brick & Kyle Associates lowered its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 73.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,565 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 42,121 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 1.2% of Brick & Kyle Associates’ portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest position. Brick & Kyle Associates’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,724,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,033,300,000 after purchasing an additional 6,733,278 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after buying an additional 4,008,374 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,857,017,000 after buying an additional 4,224,497 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,780,875,000 after acquiring an additional 503,306 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $290.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Alphabet from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price target (up from $245.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $314.22.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $309.29 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $328.83. The company has a market capitalization of $3.73 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $283.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $229.57.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. 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 (DPR) is 8.28%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total transaction of $10,383,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,272,119 shares in the company, valued at $725,942,020.50. This trade represents a 1.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.66, for a total value of $32,401.32. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,104 shares in the company, valued at $5,750,916.64. This trade represents a 0.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 226,128 shares of company stock valued at $61,326,372 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

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.