Nicholas Company Inc. Decreases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Nicholas Company Inc. decreased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 10.5% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,176,195 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 137,905 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 3.6% of Nicholas Company Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Nicholas Company Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $215,738,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $4,101,040,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 19.7% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876,534 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth about $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,355,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470,042 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 51.8% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,416,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $976,923,000 after buying an additional 2,190,795 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total value of $118,572.52. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,209,888.76. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total value of $118,572.52. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,209,888.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total value of $3,772,350.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,159,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $362,126,319.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 179,065 shares of company stock worth $31,025,543 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $167.43 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.68, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $176.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $164.50. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $121.46 and a 52 week high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Rosenblatt Securities cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $182.86.

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.