Archer Investment Corp Lowers Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Archer Investment Corp reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 12.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,174 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 297 shares during the period. Archer Investment Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $340,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% during the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $39,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Lake Street Capital restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.40.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $466,000,536.96. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,575,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 255,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,695,000. This represents a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 215,843 shares of company stock valued at $37,288,490. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.3%

NASDAQ GOOG traded up $0.63 on Friday, reaching $185.33. The stock had a trading volume of 5,568,442 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,485,885. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $173.39 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $174.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

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.