Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC Reduces Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lessened its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 178,753 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 10,299 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 0.6% of Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $51,402,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $52,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 142.9% in the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud revenue reportedly increased 82% in the second quarter, with backlog reaching $514 billion, while the Gemini app reached approximately 950 million monthly active users. The results reinforce the commercial demand supporting Alphabet’s AI and cloud investments. Google’s AI business is booming, so why are DeepMind’s biggest names quitting?
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors continue to highlight Alphabet’s strong cash generation, balance sheet and valuation relative to its growth prospects. Some market models see the shares reaching $400 as Cloud momentum and AI monetization continue. Price Prediction: Google Will Hit $400 on This Date
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s expanded Google Cloud partnership with AI lab Mirendil, reportedly worth more than $100 million over multiple years, provides another example of demand for its computing infrastructure. Mirendil Google Cloud deal

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $390.00 price objective (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Alphabet from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $440.00 price target (up from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Bank of America raised their price objective on Alphabet from $370.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Citigroup restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, May 4th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $419.86.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total transaction of $387,061.50. Following the sale, the director directly owned 1,481 shares in the company, valued at $545,941.03. This represents a 41.49% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total transaction of $3,142,911.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 75,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,298,044.10. This represents a 10.68% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 600,547 shares of company stock worth $16,255,540. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $354.30 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $355.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $340.41. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $196.60 and a 12-month high of $408.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market capitalization of $4.33 trillion, a PE ratio of 17.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 4.42%.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.