Baillie Gifford & Co. Sells 212,412 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Key Points

• Baillie Gifford & Co. has reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 6.4%, now holding approximately $485.17 million worth of shares after selling 212,412 shares in Q1.
• In a recent insider trading event, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares for about $5.8 million, which lowered his ownership by 1.25%.
• Alphabet reported earnings of $2.31 per share for the quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations, with revenues up 13.8% year-over-year.

Baillie Gifford & Co. reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 6.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,105,472 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 212,412 shares during the quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $485,168,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% during the 1st quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company restated an "equal weight" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Piper Sandler restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Westpark Capital restated a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $215.19.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.6%

Alphabet stock traded down $1.18 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $192.90. The stock had a trading volume of 15,549,912 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,222,178. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.01. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $176.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.38.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $466,000,536.96. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 249,409 shares of company stock valued at $43,523,710. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

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.