Mawer Investment Management Ltd. Has $6.66 Million Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Key Points

• Mawer Investment Management Ltd. has reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) by 4.4%, selling 2,001 shares and now holding 43,053 shares valued at approximately $6.66 million.
• Alphabet's CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares for nearly $5.8 million, decreasing his holdings by 1.25%, while insider sales totaled over $49 million last quarter.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Alphabet, with Bank of America setting a new target at $217.00, and the stock currently has a "Moderate Buy" average rating among experts.

Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 4.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 43,053 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 2,001 shares during the quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,658,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 33.1% in the first quarter. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,479 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $847,000 after buying an additional 1,364 shares in the last quarter. Miller Investment Management LP grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.7% in the first quarter. Miller Investment Management LP now owns 91,375 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $14,130,000 after buying an additional 4,070 shares in the last quarter. Morningstar Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Morningstar Investment Management LLC now owns 303,207 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $46,888,000 after purchasing an additional 11,000 shares in the last quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 63,927 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $9,886,000 after purchasing an additional 856 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 29.2% during the 1st quarter. Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC now owns 23,817 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,600,000 after purchasing an additional 5,386 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Truist Financial restated a "buy" rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. JMP Securities raised their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Bank of America increased their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $217.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. DA Davidson increased their target price on Alphabet from $160.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.53.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at $8,371,905.30. This trade represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 273,219 shares of company stock worth $49,474,273. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.5%

Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $4.90 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $201.42. 39,112,061 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 38,618,092. The company has a market cap of $2.44 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $180.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $173.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date 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 (DPR) is currently 8.95%.

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.