Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Holdings Decreased by Welch & Forbes LLC

Welch & Forbes LLC lessened its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 435,396 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 4,610 shares during the quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $67,330,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Altman Advisors Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 35.2% in the first quarter. Altman Advisors Inc. now owns 35,254 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,598,000 after acquiring an additional 9,180 shares in the last quarter. Grandfield & Dodd LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.3% in the first quarter. Grandfield & Dodd LLC now owns 116,983 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $18,090,000 after acquiring an additional 11,922 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 650,623 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $100,612,000 after purchasing an additional 12,976 shares in the last quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.7% in the first quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC now owns 65,989 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,205,000 after buying an additional 1,705 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Private Wealth Management Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 20.6% in the 1st quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 2,515 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $389,000 after purchasing an additional 429 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at $45,213,984. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 249,409 shares of company stock worth $43,523,710 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock traded up $1.94 on Thursday, hitting $192.17. 74,740,490 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 39,272,972. The stock has a market cap of $2.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $175.23 and a 200-day moving average of $173.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.22% and a net margin of 31.12%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho dropped their price target on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $196.00 to $201.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.32.

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.