Financial Connections Group Inc. Lowers Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Financial Connections Group Inc. lessened its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,243 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 84 shares during the quarter. Financial Connections Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $220,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after buying an additional 6,410 shares in the last quarter. Revisor Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 107.9% in the first quarter. Revisor Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,659 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $572,000 after acquiring an additional 1,899 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 19.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 91,681 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,323,000 after acquiring an additional 14,931 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 328.3% in the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 28,308 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,423,000 after acquiring an additional 21,699 shares during the period. Finally, Great Lakes Retirement Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 21.0% in the first quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc. now owns 1,878 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $293,000 after acquiring an additional 326 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total value of $680,610.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at $4,236,785. The trade was a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 243,838 shares of company stock valued at $53,070,333 over the last three months. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $246.19 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $228.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $191.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $256.70. The company has a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.22, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. Phillip Securities lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. KeyCorp set a $265.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. BNP Paribas downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 target price (up from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Six 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 given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus 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.