Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by WS Management Lllp

Key Points

• WS Management Lllp reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 19.1% during the first quarter, owning 104,453 shares after selling 24,727 shares.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Alphabet; JPMorgan Chase increased it to $232.00, while Needham & Company reiterated a "buy" rating with a target of $220.00.
• Alphabet announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21, with an annualized yield of 0.4%, set to be paid on September 15th.

WS Management Lllp lessened its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 19.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 104,453 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 24,727 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 1.8% of WS Management Lllp's portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. WS Management Lllp's holdings in Alphabet were worth $16,153,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mystic Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Mystic Asset Management Inc. now owns 28,454 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,400,000 after buying an additional 1,791 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,187,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $3,119,000. Cypress Capital LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 4.1% during the first quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,213,000 after acquiring an additional 563 shares during the period. Finally, Falcon Wealth Planning increased its position in Alphabet by 15.7% during the first quarter. Falcon Wealth Planning now owns 9,898 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,531,000 after acquiring an additional 1,340 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $211.53.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $211.64 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $212.22. The firm has a market cap of $2.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.01. The company's 50-day moving average price is $189.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $173.92.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $2,786,400.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 240,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,656,704. The trade was a 5.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.79, for a total transaction of $122,274.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 6,316 shares in the company, valued at $1,287,137.64. This trade represents a 8.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 254,608 shares of company stock valued at $47,204,035. Company 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.

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