Nicola Wealth Management LTD. Sells 9,000 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Nicola Wealth Management LTD. decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.3% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 113,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 9,000 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.7% of Nicola Wealth Management LTD.’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Nicola Wealth Management LTD.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,613,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after acquiring an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after acquiring an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Alphabet by 307.6% in the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,302,644 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,593,201,000 after acquiring an additional 7,774,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,375,509,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $184.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $221.44.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $240.37 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $242.25. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $200.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $177.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 6,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,383,200. This trade represents a 12.63% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 254,710 shares of company stock valued at $49,208,380. 11.64% of the stock is 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.