Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Cuts Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 4,656,754 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 387,704 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.0% of Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $778,563,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bedell Frazier Investment Counselling LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Bedell Frazier Investment Counselling LLC now owns 4,848 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $810,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd raised its position in Alphabet by 62.0% during the third quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 157,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,351,000 after purchasing an additional 60,325 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 882,787 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $147,593,000 after purchasing an additional 59,789 shares during the last quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 201,427 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $33,677,000 after purchasing an additional 4,170 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Investment Counsel LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Investment Counsel LLC now owns 4,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $681,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total transaction of $109,420.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,136,807.48. This represents a 2.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Alphabet in a report on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price target on the stock. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Pivotal Research increased their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $166.57 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $169.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $171.87. The company has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $129.40 and a twelve month high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

About Alphabet

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.