Wendell David Associates Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Wendell David Associates Inc. reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.1% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 116,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 121 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.8% of Wendell David Associates Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Wendell David Associates Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,999,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. PayPay Securities Corp grew its stake in Alphabet by 36.1% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $49,000. Navigoe LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $51,000. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $53,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. UBS Group set a $195.00 price target on Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $173.32 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $164.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The company has a market capitalization of $2.10 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. Research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This trade represents a 19.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

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.