Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Holdings Trimmed by Capital Investment Services of America Inc.

Capital Investment Services of America Inc. reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,314 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,774 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Services of America Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,007,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,119,000. Optivise Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares during the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,741,000 after purchasing an additional 2,790 shares during the last quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 30.0% during the fourth quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 61,792 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,816,000 after purchasing an additional 14,262 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Absolute Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 14.0% during the fourth quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC now owns 2,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $401,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $174.67 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $162.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOGL. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price objective (down from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $178.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $189.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, UBS Group set a $195.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total value of $5,483,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,587,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $436,570,192.16. This represents a 1.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.