Alpha Cubed Investments LLC Has $76.13 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Alpha Cubed Investments LLC lowered its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 8.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 492,306 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 44,895 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 3.4% of Alpha Cubed Investments LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $76,130,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after acquiring an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Alphabet by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,575,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 255,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,695,000. The trade was a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.98, for a total transaction of $72,792.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 6,013 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,094,245.74. This trade represents a 6.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 215,843 shares of company stock valued at $37,288,490. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $0.61 during trading on Thursday, reaching $183.58. 31,918,761 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 32,090,183. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $172.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $173.15. The company has a market cap of $2.23 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. JMP Securities upgraded Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to a "market outperform" rating and set a $220.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, June 27th. Roth Capital restated a "buy" rating and set a $205.00 target price (up from $180.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Wedbush set a $190.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $201.41.

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.