Liberty Capital Management Inc. Sells 2,213 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Liberty Capital Management cut its Alphabet position by 3.7%, selling 2,213 shares in the third quarter; it retained 57,667 shares worth about $19.8 million, making Alphabet its fifth-largest holding.
• Alphabet shares traded at $295.77, down 1% on the day. The company’s latest quarterly earnings missed analyst expectations, reporting $2.12 per share versus a $3.02 consensus estimate.
• Despite lowering price targets, analysts maintained a consensus Buy rating, with an average target of $412.51.

Liberty Capital Management Inc. lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 3.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 57,667 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 2,213 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 3.4% of Liberty Capital Management Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Liberty Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $19,842,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Titleist Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% during the third quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC now owns 34,613 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $11,909,000 after buying an additional 2,096 shares in the last quarter. Elefante Mark B raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% in the second quarter. Elefante Mark B now owns 43,733 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $15,629,000 after buying an additional 1,897 shares during the last quarter. Nwam LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 19.6% in the first quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 49,128 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $14,127,000 after buying an additional 8,055 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 287.4% in the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,886 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,063,000 after buying an additional 2,883 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spinnaker Investment Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 51.4% in the second quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC now owns 4,759 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,701,000 after buying an additional 1,616 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Alphabet News Summary

Investors following GOOGL have been watching these news items:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud’s reported 103% third-quarter revenue growth and tripling of operating income suggest that Alphabet’s large AI infrastructure investments may be generating returns, bolstering the case for spending despite its scale. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s abrupt departure could encourage cloud customers to diversify AI-chip suppliers. Alphabet’s TPUs may benefit from that shift; Google Cloud also uses AMD processors in TPU infrastructure. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: An investor commentary argues that Alphabet’s substantial cash generation and business strengths provide reasons not to overreact to AI-related capital spending, though the returns on that spending remain a key issue for investors. Read More.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.0%

Alphabet stock traded down $2.93 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $295.77. 30,682,111 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 40,687,932. The company has a current ratio of 2.79, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $328.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $338.01. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $270.70 and a fifty-two week high of $408.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.64 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.44, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.02 by ($0.90). The firm had revenue of $127.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $127.96 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 50.03% and a return on equity of 43.33%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 19.81 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 7th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4.59%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $405.00 price target (down from $425.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $410.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Freedom Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $400.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating and set a $375.00 target price (down from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $412.51.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 83 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.45, for a total transaction of $28,257.35. Following the sale, the director owned 19,076 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,494,424.20. The trade was a 0.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 247 shares of company stock worth $79,238. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc. is a technology holding company whose largest business is Google. Founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google became part of Alphabet when the company reorganized its businesses under the holding-company structure in 2015. Google's products and services include Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and Google Cloud. The company also generates revenue from digital advertising and offers devices, subscriptions and artificial intelligence products and services.

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