Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by First Merchants Corp

First Merchants Corp lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 11.6% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 13,231 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,740 shares during the quarter. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,347,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Revisor Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 107.9% in the 1st quarter. Revisor Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,659 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $572,000 after acquiring an additional 1,899 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 19.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 91,681 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,323,000 after acquiring an additional 14,931 shares during the period. Krilogy Financial LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 47,104 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,359,000 after acquiring an additional 1,439 shares during the period. Finally, Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. now owns 15,752 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,461,000 after acquiring an additional 505 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $237.49 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $226.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $189.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $256.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 8.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total transaction of $7,910,825.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,402,119 shares in the company, valued at $584,699,785.79. The trade was a 1.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 103 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.13, for a total value of $25,042.39. Following the transaction, the director owned 17,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,202,258.92. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 276,738 shares of company stock worth $59,135,475. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $245.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Phillip Securities lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Barclays reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Citizens Jmp raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $241.00.

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.