Grimes & Company Inc. Trims Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Grimes & Company Inc. decreased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 172,932 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 575 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 0.9% of Grimes & Company Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest position. Grimes & Company Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $32,736,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 43,005.6% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,086,250,000 after acquiring an additional 18,700,111 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 587.4% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,772,991,000 after purchasing an additional 9,135,056 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Alphabet by 116.4% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,437,957,000 after buying an additional 4,662,809 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Alphabet by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after buying an additional 4,567,275 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 115.4% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 6,939,456 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,264,022,000 after buying an additional 3,718,420 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Loop Capital raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. China Renaissance raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $211.00.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $204.02 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $130.66 and a 1-year high of $205.48. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $188.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.03. The firm has a market cap of $2.50 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total transaction of $559,856.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at $4,085,531.55. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 121,630 shares of company stock worth $22,258,133. 11.55% of the stock is currently 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.