Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. Trims Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,667,043 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 108,797 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 6.9% of Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $442,329,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 43,005.6% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,086,250,000 after buying an additional 18,700,111 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 587.4% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,772,991,000 after purchasing an additional 9,135,056 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,437,957,000 after purchasing an additional 4,662,809 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 18,810.2% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $807,700,000 after purchasing an additional 4,410,811 shares during the period. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 143.7% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,072,197 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,288,201,000 after purchasing an additional 4,170,229 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Alphabet from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Truist Financial upped their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, China Renaissance raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.03.

Alphabet Stock Up 5.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $185.17 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $129.68 and a 52 week high of $191.75. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $169.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $170.21. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market cap of $2.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results 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. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.84, for a total transaction of $230,804.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,927,257.72. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total value of $3,614,175.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,114,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,713,977.55. This trade represents a 1.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 197,923 shares of company stock worth $34,244,676. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Company 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.