Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. Trims Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. lessened its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 88,338 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,108 shares during the quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,670,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.4% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 21,345,784 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,334,852,000 after purchasing an additional 1,098,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,380,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,183,979,000 after purchasing an additional 440,526 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $260.51 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market cap of $3.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day moving average of $237.33 and a 200 day moving average of $196.91. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $262.51.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.92, for a total value of $145,752.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,116 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,242,778.72. This represents a 10.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the 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 approximately $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 246,150 shares of company stock valued at $55,805,379 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Phillip Securities lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Hsbc Global Res raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, KeyCorp set a $265.00 target price on Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $249.68.

About Alphabet

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.