Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. Has $74 Million Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 76.7% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 446,198 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,470,709 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $74,002,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Kennebec Savings Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,369,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.8% during the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 20,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,416,000 after acquiring an additional 2,965 shares in the last quarter. Arvest Investments Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 76.3% during the third quarter. Arvest Investments Inc. now owns 10,844 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,799,000 after purchasing an additional 4,693 shares during the period. Stockman Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Stockman Wealth Management Inc. now owns 68,556 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,370,000 after purchasing an additional 3,542 shares in the last quarter. Finally, River Global Investors LLP grew its position in Alphabet by 90.5% in the 3rd quarter. River Global Investors LLP now owns 221,080 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,679,000 after purchasing an additional 104,998 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.90.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total transaction of $109,420.08. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares in the company, valued at $5,136,807.48. This trade represents a 2.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $164.76 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.85, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $127.90 and a fifty-two week high of $191.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $167.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $170.36.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. Analysts expect 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 will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.61%.

Alphabet 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.