Allen Investment Management LLC Sells 495,191 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Key Points

• Allen Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 18.2%, selling 495,191 shares and now holds 2,226,472 shares valued at approximately $347.8 million.
• CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock for about $5.99 million, resulting in a 1.27% decrease in his stake.
• Analysts have recently raised their price targets for Alphabet, with Scotiabank setting a target of $240.00 and Pivotal Research at $245.00, indicating strong market confidence in the company.

Allen Investment Management LLC trimmed its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 18.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,226,472 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 495,191 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 4.1% of Allen Investment Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Allen Investment Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $347,842,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Concentrum Wealth Management grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 17,328 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,300,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 593 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $113,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Kidder Stephen W lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Kidder Stephen W now owns 3,608 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $687,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Objectivity Squared LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the first quarter. Objectivity Squared LLC now owns 16,342 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,605,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the period. Finally, Tranquility Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the first quarter. Tranquility Partners LLC now owns 14,488 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,263,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Westpark Capital reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $215.19.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock traded up $2.36 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $195.78. The company's stock had a trading volume of 14,205,082 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,214,928. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $177.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $174.38. The stock has a market cap of $2.38 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at $45,213,984. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 249,409 shares of company stock worth $43,523,710. Insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet 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.