Trillium Asset Management LLC Lowers Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Key Points

• Trillium Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 10%, selling 1,420 shares in the first quarter, resulting in a holding of 12,750 shares valued at approximately $1,992,000.
• Insider transactions showed significant selling activity with Kavitark Ram Shriram and John Kent Walker selling over 42,000 shares combined, indicating a 7.09% and 35.65% decrease in their respective positions.
• Alphabet's quarterly earnings beat expectations, reporting an EPS of $2.31 and revenue of $96.43 billion, a 13.8% year-over-year increase.

Trillium Asset Management LLC lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 10.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,750 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,420 shares during the period. Trillium Asset Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,992,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth about $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 18,562.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,237,733,000 after purchasing an additional 14,246,573 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $64,299,725,000 after purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Alphabet by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Alphabet by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG traded up $0.79 on Thursday, hitting $203.82. The company's stock had a trading volume of 17,610,143 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,017,828. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market cap of $2.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.02. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $183.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. 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%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GOOG. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Pivotal Research upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Lake Street Capital reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $215.19.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $2,786,400.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 240,400 shares in the company, valued at $44,656,704. This represents a 5.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,916 shares in the company, valued at $1,383,200. This represents a 12.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 274,219 shares of company stock valued at $49,674,273. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.