Bridge Creek Capital Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Bridge Creek Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 269 shares during the period. Bridge Creek Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $732,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Alphabet by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after acquiring an additional 4,567,275 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 1,582 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $299,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Capital & Planning LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 34.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital & Planning LLC now owns 4,383 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $830,000 after buying an additional 1,119 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 50,132 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,490,000 after buying an additional 371 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.6%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $169.03 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.05 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $159.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.53.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group set a $195.00 target price on Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $189.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.75.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 163,270 shares of company stock valued at $26,553,563 in the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.