EdgeRock Capital LLC Sells 396 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

EdgeRock Capital LLC cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 10.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,272 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 396 shares during the period. EdgeRock Capital LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $511,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 111.8% in the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on GOOG. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Scotiabank lowered their price target on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. KeyCorp decreased their target price on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.88.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.3%

GOOG stock opened at $180.01 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market cap of $2.18 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a 50 day moving average of $162.80 and a 200 day moving average of $176.20.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Alphabet

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.