Bard Financial Services Inc. Decreases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Bard Financial Services Inc. decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 10.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 57,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 6,890 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 1.1% of Bard Financial Services Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Bard Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $9,616,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% during the 3rd 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,268,933,000 after buying an additional 1,237,385 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the second 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 acquiring an additional 238,403 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 523,416 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on GOOGL shares. Loop Capital upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, JMP Securities lifted their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.69.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.07, for a total value of $3,759,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,129,306 shares in the company, valued at $355,743,153.42. This represents a 1.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $115,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 27,824 shares in the company, valued at $4,590,960. This trade represents a 2.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 178,957 shares of company stock valued at $31,358,687 in the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $188.40 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.31 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $173.46 and its 200 day moving average is $171.09. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $130.66 and a 12-month high of $201.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. Research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.