Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by United Asset Strategies Inc.

United Asset Strategies Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.3% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 9,830 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 771 shares during the period. United Asset Strategies Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,744,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake 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 worth $64,299,725,000 after acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in 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 during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Alphabet by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in Alphabet by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 21,345,784 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,334,852,000 after purchasing an additional 1,098,996 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Alphabet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,380,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,183,979,000 after purchasing an additional 440,526 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.48, for a total value of $9,213,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,337,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $662,526,494.12. The trade was a 1.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.92, for a total value of $145,752.00. Following the sale, the director owned 5,116 shares in the company, valued at $1,242,778.72. This trade represents a 10.50% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 221,796 shares of company stock valued at $53,983,001. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Alphabet from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $340.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.81.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.5%

GOOG stock opened at $287.43 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $256.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $208.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. 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 $292.36.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.28%.

Alphabet Company 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.