Parnassus Investments LLC Has $1.85 Billion Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Parnassus Investments LLC lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 20.6% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 11,176,799 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,901,034 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 3.9% of Parnassus Investments LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Parnassus Investments LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,853,672,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. New Hampshire Trust grew its position in Alphabet by 2.7% during the second quarter. New Hampshire Trust now owns 43,714 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,963,000 after buying an additional 1,132 shares during the period. Schear Investment Advisers LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during the 3rd quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 33,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,598,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $771,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the period. abrdn plc raised its holdings in Alphabet by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 6,305,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,037,196,000 after purchasing an additional 611,233 shares during the period. Finally, StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. now owns 21,509 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,567,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America boosted their price target on Alphabet from $206.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. DA Davidson began coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $170.00 price objective for the company. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.90.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,114,885 shares in the company, valued at $339,713,977.55. This trade represents a 1.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at $4,421,948.46. This trade represents a 8.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 163,624 shares of company stock valued at $27,803,730 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $171.34 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $168.84 and a 200 day moving average of $170.26. 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 capitalization of $2.10 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $127.90 and a 52 week high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.