Orbis Allan Gray Ltd Decreases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Orbis Allan Gray Ltd has reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 63.4%, selling over 2.25 million shares, leaving it with approximately 1.3 million shares valued at around $201 million.
• Numerous institutional investors have recently changed their positions in Alphabet, with Nuveen LLC investing over $4.3 billion while GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings significantly by over 16,900%.
• Alphabet has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.21, with a payout date set for September 15th, representing an annualized yield of approximately 0.4%.

Orbis Allan Gray Ltd lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 63.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,301,632 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 2,252,525 shares during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd's holdings in Alphabet were worth $201,284,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter worth about $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after acquiring an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in 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 last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Alphabet by 307.6% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,302,644 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,593,201,000 after acquiring an additional 7,774,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $1,375,509,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GOOGL. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. BNP Paribas cut shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Four investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $211.53.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $212.91 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $190.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The firm has a market cap of $2.57 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $214.65.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.92, for a total value of $6,497,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,462,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at $492,281,408.64. This represents a 1.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 254,710 shares of company stock valued at $47,225,230 over the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.

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