Ameriflex Group Inc. Cuts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Ameriflex Group Inc. trimmed its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 20.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,230 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,859 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 0.7% of Ameriflex Group Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Ameriflex Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,737,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after acquiring an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 43,648,514 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,749,806,000 after acquiring an additional 593,345 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.9% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 39,792,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,153,481,000 after acquiring an additional 727,335 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 38,556,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,962,389,000 after acquiring an additional 104,859 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $4,317,606,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,916 shares in the company, valued at $1,383,200. The trade was a 12.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,213,984. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 254,710 shares of company stock valued at $47,225,230. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.6%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $212.91 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.57 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.67, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $190.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $173.96. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $214.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate 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, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Westpark Capital raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.53.

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.