Seilern Investment Management Ltd Sells 11,032 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Seilern Investment Management Ltd decreased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.9% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 573,507 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 11,032 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 5.8% of Seilern Investment Management Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest position. Seilern Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $88,687,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Wealth Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 1,582 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $299,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Capital & Planning LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 34.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital & Planning LLC now owns 4,383 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $830,000 after buying an additional 1,119 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 50,132 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,490,000 after buying an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $154,716,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on GOOGL. Susquehanna lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price (down from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $173.68 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $160.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.34. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.58, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by 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.