Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Sold by Sarasin & Partners LLP

Sarasin & Partners LLP decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 124,031 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,682 shares during the quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $22,750,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $8,232,000. Quantum Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Quantum Private Wealth LLC now owns 53,327 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,515,000 after buying an additional 217 shares in the last quarter. Sfmg LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Sfmg LLC now owns 70,902 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,992,000 after buying an additional 311 shares during the period. Elite Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Elite Wealth Management Inc. now owns 34,064 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,801,000 after acquiring an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goodman Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 19.4% in the 4th quarter. Goodman Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,313 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $467,000 after acquiring an additional 539 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total transaction of $3,652,875.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,182,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $354,310,204.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total transaction of $3,652,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,182,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $354,310,204.75. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 155,865 shares of company stock valued at $27,137,693 over the last quarter. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. TD Cowen raised their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $182.86.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of GOOG traded up $1.57 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $164.74. The company had a trading volume of 16,853,137 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,481,816. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.27, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $121.46 and a 52 week high of $193.31. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $177.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $163.96. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The business’s revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

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.