Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 30.7% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,300 shares during the quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $486,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its stake in Alphabet by 75.0% in the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $36,000. Denver PWM LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $41,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 59.2% in the 1st quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 293 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 109 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth about $53,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the topic of several research reports. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. China Renaissance raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.90.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.8 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $175.58 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $127.90 and a one year high of $191.75. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $164.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $170.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total transaction of $3,772,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,159,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,126,319.10. This trade represents a 1.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,820,779.40. This trade represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,471,141 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.