Barings LLC Trims Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Key Points

• Barings LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 29% in Q1, holding 17,304 shares worth $2.68 million after selling 7,074 shares.
• Alphabet's stock recently opened at $201.42 and saw a 1-year high of $207.05, reflecting a positive price movement.
• The company announced a dividend of $0.21 per share, to be paid on September 15, representing an annual yield of 0.4%.

Barings LLC cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 29.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,304 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 7,074 shares during the period. Barings LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,676,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after acquiring an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 15.9% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 66,050,135 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $12,503,291,000 after acquiring an additional 9,042,271 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.5%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $201.42 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.44 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.45, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $180.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $172.98.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $96,428,000 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.23, for a total value of $6,377,475.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,494,892 shares in the company, valued at $489,572,657.16. The trade was a 1.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total value of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 42,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. The trade was a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 273,219 shares of company stock valued at $49,474,273 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Alphabet from $184.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. JMP Securities upped their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $211.53.

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.

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