Seilern Investment Management Ltd Sells 34,198 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Seilern Investment Management Ltd trimmed its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 539,309 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 34,198 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 6.3% of Seilern Investment Management Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Seilern Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $95,042,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 307.6% in the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,302,644 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,593,201,000 after purchasing an additional 7,774,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,375,509,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $240.80 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $242.25. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $201.89 and its 200 day moving average price is $177.51. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.91 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.64, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total value of $7,466,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,429,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $558,219,089.16. This trade represents a 1.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.79, for a total transaction of $122,274.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,287,137.64. This trade represents a 8.68% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 254,710 shares of company stock worth $49,208,380 over the last three months. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on GOOGL. Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $191.00 to $224.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $221.44.

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.