Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by Blair William & Co. IL

Blair William & Co. IL trimmed its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,180,029 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 35,649 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 1.6% of Blair William & Co. IL’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $564,105,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $369,713,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG opened at $237.49 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $256.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.29, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $226.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $189.99.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group set a $255.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Pivotal Research boosted their price target on Alphabet from $245.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $241.00.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 103 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the director owned 17,284 shares in the company, valued at $4,202,258.92. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total value of $7,910,825.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,402,119 shares in the company, valued at $584,699,785.79. This represents a 1.33% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 276,338 shares of company stock valued at $59,062,683. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.