Baillie Gifford & Co. Grows Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 987,806 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 17,975 shares during the quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $179,929,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. RPS Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $599,000. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $29,632,000. Fullcircle Wealth LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $2,113,000. Kanawha Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% in the second quarter. Kanawha Capital Management LLC now owns 151,603 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $27,615,000 after purchasing an additional 3,617 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 4.0% in the second quarter. Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 8,072 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,470,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.85, for a total value of $278,775.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 30,824 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,728,640.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 682 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.85, for a total value of $278,775.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 30,824 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,728,640.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 155,883 shares of company stock valued at $26,705,320 in the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $181.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. TD Securities increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $203.74.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $1.60 during trading on Monday, hitting $163.38. 22,123,799 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 27,633,090. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.01 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $120.21 and a 12-month high of $191.75. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $173.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $163.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

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.