Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Reduces Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 15.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,918,961 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 737,793 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 80.6% of Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $746,327,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $2,133,000. NEOS Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 21.8% during the 4th quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 403,102 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $76,767,000 after acquiring an additional 72,185 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,424,338 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $271,251,000 after purchasing an additional 28,171 shares in the last quarter. Moment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $659,000. Finally, Sava Infond d.o.o. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $429,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total value of $262,040.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,961,445.55. This trade represents a 6.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Citizens Jmp cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.3 %

GOOG stock opened at $167.14 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $148.20 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $182.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $178.36.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

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.