Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC Sells 12,916 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 6.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 174,114 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 12,916 shares during the quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $33,158,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $227,000. Shorepoint Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Shorepoint Capital Partners LLC now owns 18,551 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,533,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc. now owns 53,459 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $10,181,000 after acquiring an additional 2,040 shares during the period. Berger Financial Group Inc raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Berger Financial Group Inc now owns 14,996 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,856,000 after acquiring an additional 147 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management now owns 253,542 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $48,284,000 after purchasing an additional 15,909 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Rosenblatt Securities raised Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $203.94.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total value of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares in the company, valued at $1,232,544.70. The trade was a 2.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,053 shares of company stock worth $25,339,647 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ:GOOG traded up $1.90 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $162.79. 21,821,102 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,213,471. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business's 50-day moving average price is $162.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $177.12. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Alphabet's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend 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.