Mawer Investment Management Ltd. Lowers Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Mawer Investment Management Ltd. cut its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,985,872 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 54,421 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 4.6% of Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest position. Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,000,778,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. M&G PLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at about $2,240,000. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $390,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 301,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $50,488,000 after buying an additional 4,292 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 63,545 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,624,000 after buying an additional 5,892 shares during the period. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 11,366 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,097,000 after buying an additional 498 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $174.98 on Monday. 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 has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $167.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $171.74. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $129.40 and a 12-month high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) 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 the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. This represents a 8.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total value of $3,570,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,137,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,160,251.80. This trade represents a 1.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,471,141 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

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.