Hoxton Planning & Management LLC Takes $671,000 Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Key Points

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Hoxton Planning & Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 4,292 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $671,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,237,733,000 after purchasing an additional 14,246,573 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Alphabet by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,917,625 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Alphabet by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $17,376,706,000 after acquiring an additional 5,758,244 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 33,504,543 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $6,380,605,000 after acquiring an additional 4,247,379 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $786,942,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Westpark Capital restated a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup restated a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $215.19.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 249,399 shares of company stock worth $43,525,794 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of GOOG traded down $2.52 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $190.34. The company had a trading volume of 6,816,322 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,221,965. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $178.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market cap of $2.31 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. Alphabet's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

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.