Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stock Position Decreased by USS Investment Management Ltd

USS Investment Management Ltd cut its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 14.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 925,393 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 160,708 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 1.1% of USS Investment Management Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. USS Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $143,019,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth about $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 307.6% during the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 7,774,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,375,509,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $235.00 on Friday. 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 business’s 50 day moving average is $195.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $175.41. The company has a market cap of $2.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $235.76.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group increased their price objective on Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Guggenheim increased their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $222.33.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total transaction of $7,466,225.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,429,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $558,219,089.16. This trade represents a 1.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 5.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 254,710 shares of company stock worth $49,208,380 over the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Company 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.