Ashford Capital Management Inc. Has $969,000 Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Ashford Capital Management Inc. cut its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.2% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,420 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 500 shares during the quarter. Ashford Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $969,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $75,144,172,000 after buying an additional 4,064,073 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,724,251,000 after buying an additional 7,275,757 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,220,857 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,316,902,000 after buying an additional 1,472,043 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 35,412,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,344,778,000 after buying an additional 597,756 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total transaction of $4,113,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,204,885 shares in the company, valued at $403,141,173.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total transaction of $4,113,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,204,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $403,141,173.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 99,126 shares of company stock worth $17,617,549. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $170.76 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $178.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $161.14. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $120.21 and a 12-month high of $191.75. The firm has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.19, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.44 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Alphabet from $170.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $240.00 price objective on the stock. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.74.

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.