Francis Financial Inc. Lowers Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Francis Financial Inc. cut its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 22.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,276 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 3,612 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 0.5% of Francis Financial Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest position. Francis Financial Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,898,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth about $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Alphabet by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Alphabet by 15.9% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 66,050,135 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $12,503,291,000 after purchasing an additional 9,042,271 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Truist Financial restated a "buy" rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Roth Capital boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $211.53.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $201.57 on Wednesday. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $185.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $173.20. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05. 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 market cap of $2.44 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.47, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The business had revenue of $96,428,000 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $93.60 billion. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the transaction, the director directly 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 SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 242,319 shares of company stock valued at $44,243,272. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

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.

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