Great Lakes Advisors LLC Reduces Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Great Lakes Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.4% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 237,748 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 3,450 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $37,143,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Alphabet by 9.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 34,103,417 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,494,655,000 after purchasing an additional 769,335 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 30,827,999 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,870,944,000 after purchasing an additional 1,467,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG grew its stake in Alphabet by 5.4% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 21,345,784 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,334,852,000 after purchasing an additional 1,098,996 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total value of $4,637,754.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 254,710 shares of company stock valued at $49,208,380. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 price target (up from $235.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on Alphabet from $245.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. KeyCorp set a $265.00 price target on Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $227.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $235.17 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $196.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.75. The company has a market cap of $2.84 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $236.13.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The business’s revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Alphabet Company 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.