Foyston Gordon & Payne Inc Cuts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Foyston Gordon & Payne Inc lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 8.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 100,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 9,313 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 4.2% of Foyston Gordon & Payne Inc’s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Foyston Gordon & Payne Inc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $16,640,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,910,838,000 after purchasing an additional 743,369 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,268,933,000 after acquiring an additional 1,237,385 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,011,412,000 after purchasing an additional 238,403 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 37,233,079 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,175,106,000 after buying an additional 523,416 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 23,465,190 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,274,184,000 after acquiring an additional 418,204 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $195.42 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $172.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $170.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $130.66 and a 1 year high of $201.42. The company has a market cap of $2.39 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.92, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. KeyCorp upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $206.08.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.22, for a total value of $291,330.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 23,324 shares in the company, valued at $4,529,987.28. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.84, for a total transaction of $230,804.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,927,257.72. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 178,957 shares of company stock worth $31,358,687 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.