Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Wedge Capital Management L L P NC

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lessened its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 24.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 289,387 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 95,393 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 1.2% of Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $70,350,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after acquiring an additional 6,733,278 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after acquiring an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 3.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $24,857,017,000 after purchasing an additional 4,224,497 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at approximately $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.2% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,780,875,000 after purchasing an additional 503,306 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “buy” rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 target price (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Susquehanna increased their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $290.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $315.90.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.05, for a total transaction of $694,638.90. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 14,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,629,725.80. The trade was a 16.06% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.48, for a total value of $9,213,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,337,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $662,526,494.12. The trade was a 1.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 226,128 shares of company stock worth $63,183,331. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.1%

GOOGL stock opened at $314.06 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.79 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.07. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $328.83. The business has a 50-day moving average of $293.14 and a 200-day moving average of $237.26.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%.The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th were given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Alphabet 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.