Philadelphia Trust Co. Trims Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Philadelphia Trust Co. reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 4.3% in Q1, resulting in holdings worth $8.94 million after selling 2,601 shares.
• Alphabet's latest earnings report showed an EPS of $2.31, surpassing expectations, with a revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, reflecting a year-over-year growth of 13.8%.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.21, with a payout ratio of 8.95% and an annualized dividend yield of 0.4% set to be paid on September 15th.

Philadelphia Trust Co. lessened its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 4.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 57,241 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 2,601 shares during the quarter. Philadelphia Trust Co.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $8,943,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,237,733,000 after buying an additional 14,246,573 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after buying an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after buying an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after buying an additional 7,917,625 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Susquehanna restated a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $215.19.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.5%

Alphabet stock traded up $1.09 during trading on Friday, hitting $204.91. The company's stock had a trading volume of 21,099,072 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,041,420. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.02. The stock's fifty day moving average is $185.21 and its 200 day moving average is $174.52. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Insider Transactions 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 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.23, for a total value of $6,377,475.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,494,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at $489,572,657.16. This represents a 1.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 274,819 shares of company stock valued at $49,796,547. Insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

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.