Meixler Investment Management Ltd. Decreases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Meixler Investment Management Ltd. reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 20.6% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,933 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 760 shares during the period. Meixler Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $517,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.4% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 43,865,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,783,364,000 after buying an additional 4,473,901 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 43,648,514 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,749,806,000 after purchasing an additional 593,345 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in Alphabet by 1.9% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 39,792,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,153,481,000 after buying an additional 727,335 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 38,556,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,962,389,000 after purchasing an additional 104,859 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. DZ Bank restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Melius Research raised their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $306.00 target price (up from $255.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $304.10.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.80, for a total transaction of $32,681.60. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,253,567.20. The trade was a 0.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 221,796 shares of company stock worth $53,983,001. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.8%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $278.57 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.47, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $256.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $207.79. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $292.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

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.