Guggenheim Capital LLC Cuts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Guggenheim Capital LLC reduced its Alphabet Inc. stock holdings by 16.6%, now holding approximately 820,385 shares valued at around $126.8 million.
• Several hedge funds, including Nuveen LLC and GAMMA Investing LLC, significantly increased their stakes in Alphabet in the first quarter, with GAMMA expanding by over 16,993%.
• Alphabet plans to pay a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share on September 15th, marking an annualized dividend of $0.84 and a yield of 0.4%.

Guggenheim Capital LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 16.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 820,385 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 163,561 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.2% of Guggenheim Capital LLC's holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Guggenheim Capital LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $126,864,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth about $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the 1st 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 stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the 1st 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. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 15.9% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 9,042,271 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 307.6% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,302,644 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,593,201,000 after acquiring an additional 7,774,811 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the 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 owned 2,559,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This represents a 1.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $200,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,916 shares in the company, valued at $1,383,200. The trade was a 12.63% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 254,608 shares of company stock worth $47,204,035 over the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $203.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. BNP Paribas lowered Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, June 27th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Alphabet from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.53.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $211.64 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $212.22. 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 business's fifty day simple moving average is $189.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $173.92. The company has a market capitalization of $2.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.54, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

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