S&CO Inc. Sells 5,401 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

S&CO Inc. trimmed its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 5.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 95,662 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 5,401 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.0% of S&CO Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. S&CO Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $14,793,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GOOGL. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 15.9% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 66,050,135 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $12,503,291,000 after purchasing an additional 9,042,271 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $184.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Citizens Jmp raised shares of Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on Alphabet from $196.00 to $201.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.23, for a total transaction of $6,377,475.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,494,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $489,572,657.16. The trade was a 1.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $2,786,400.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 240,400 shares in the company, valued at $44,656,704. The trade was a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 273,219 shares of company stock worth $49,474,273. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL traded up $0.43 on Thursday, reaching $196.52. The company's stock had a trading volume of 26,014,319 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,764,620. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $180.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $173.13. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The company has a market cap of $2.38 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.93, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. The company had revenue of $96,428,000 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. 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.