Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC Sells 5,674 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 24.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,335 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 5,674 shares during the quarter. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,055,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 17.9% during the first quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 88,187 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,637,000 after buying an additional 13,371 shares during the period. Alaethes Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 7,646 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,182,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Moment Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% in the 2nd quarter. Moment Partners LLC now owns 5,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,039,000 after acquiring an additional 504 shares during the last quarter. Welch Group LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 64,262 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,325,000 after acquiring an additional 2,467 shares during the period. Finally, Brooktree Capital Management bought a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $352,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.50, for a total transaction of $8,108,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,397,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $598,149,304. The trade was a 1.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at $10,635,348.70. This trade represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 222,750 shares of company stock valued at $60,496,098 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Arete Research boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $236.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $300.00 target price (up from $265.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Alphabet from $340.00 to $385.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $314.22.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $308.22 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company has a market cap of $3.72 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $284.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $230.93. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $328.83.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. Research analysts predict 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 8.28%.

Alphabet 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.