Fire Capital Management LLC Cuts Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Fire Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 33.6% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,312 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 663 shares during the quarter. Fire Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $231,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 2.9% in the first 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 in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 4,473,901 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake 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 during the period. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 39,792,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,153,481,000 after purchasing an additional 727,335 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 38,556,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,962,389,000 after buying an additional 104,859 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $290.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Daiwa Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $233.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Susquehanna upped their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $304.10.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $278.83 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $251.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $204.90. The company has a market cap of $3.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $291.59.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total value of $7,466,225.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,429,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $558,219,089.16. This represents a 1.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 222,396 shares of company stock worth $54,105,275. 11.64% of the stock is 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.