Cape ANN Savings Bank Sells 1,282 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Cape ANN Savings Bank reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. by selling 1,282 shares, bringing its total ownership to 23,521 shares, which now constitutes about 2.5% of its portfolio.
• Multiple institutional investors increased their stakes in Alphabet during the first quarter, with Vanguard Group acquiring an additional 14.3 million shares, raising its total ownership to over 509 million shares.
• Analysts are optimistic about Alphabet's stock, with the majority recommending a "Buy" rating and a consensus price target of $245.88, reflecting growing confidence in the company's performance.

Cape ANN Savings Bank trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 5.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,521 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,282 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 2.5% of Cape ANN Savings Bank's portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Cape ANN Savings Bank's holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,145,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth about $4,317,606,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $78,839,544,000 after acquiring an additional 14,307,345 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.4% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 43,865,520 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $6,783,364,000 after acquiring an additional 4,473,901 shares during the period. Amundi increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.8% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 33,403,871 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $5,034,992,000 after acquiring an additional 3,537,173 shares during the period. Finally, Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 178.3% during the first quarter. Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. now owns 4,003,900 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $619,163,000 after acquiring an additional 2,565,400 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider owned 42,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at $466,000,536.96. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 276,738 shares of company stock valued at $59,135,475. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $245.88.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $236.57 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $256.00. 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 company has a 50 day moving average price of $226.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $188.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 8.95%.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.