Fundsmith LLP Reduces Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Fundsmith LLP reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 6,848,278 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 3,809 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 5.5% of Fundsmith LLP’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Fundsmith LLP owned approximately 0.06% of Alphabet worth $1,296,379,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 518.8% during the fourth quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp lifted its position in Alphabet by 36.1% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.9 %

GOOGL stock opened at $154.28 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $159.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $175.18. The company has a market cap of $1.87 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total transaction of $5,075,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,685,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $419,320,207.36. This represents a 1.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total value of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. This trade represents a 9.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 146,824 shares of company stock valued at $25,086,603 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $178.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities dropped their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $189.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

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.