Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Sells 53,951 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lowered its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 4.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,101,174 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 53,951 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV's holdings in Alphabet were worth $208,568,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,094,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041 shares during the period. Harvest Investment Services LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $824,000 after buying an additional 138 shares during the period. North Forty Two & Co. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $281,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 140.6% during the 4th quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,734 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,806,000 after buying an additional 8,610 shares during the period. Finally, Requisite Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $927,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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 dated Wednesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total value of $5,075,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,685,196 shares in the company, valued at $419,320,207.36. The trade was a 1.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 148,164 shares of company stock worth $25,357,390 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GOOG. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. UBS Group reduced their target price on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $171.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $203.94.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of GOOG stock traded up $3.02 on Friday, hitting $165.81. The stock had a trading volume of 16,826,135 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,189,025. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The stock has a market cap of $2.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a 50 day moving average of $162.25 and a 200 day moving average of $177.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

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.