Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Sells 266,291 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,293,374 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 266,291 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 0.7% of Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $584,212,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the 2nd 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 during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth about $4,298,572,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth about $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after buying an additional 9,687,855 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after acquiring an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays lifted their target price on Alphabet from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Raymond James Financial set a $275.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Loop Capital raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $304.62.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $319.95 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $269.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $219.56. The company has a market capitalization of $3.86 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $328.67.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.12 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 14,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,629,725.80. This trade represents a 16.06% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total transaction of $8,129,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,369,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $592,760,192.85. This trade represents a 1.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 227,850 shares of company stock valued at $58,874,814 over the last ninety days. 12.99% 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.