Brookstone Capital Management Sells 1,995 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Brookstone Capital Management reduced its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 3.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 48,868 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,995 shares during the quarter. Brookstone Capital Management's holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,635,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% in the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $26,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $39,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.87, for a total value of $5,553,275.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,620,196 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $447,712,890.52. The trade was a 1.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 261,966 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. KeyCorp cut their price target on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities raised Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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. Finally, Needham & Company LLC downgraded Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and six have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $206.38.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.4%

NASDAQ GOOG traded down $2.40 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $175.16. The company had a trading volume of 24,067,986 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,257,326. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $208.70. The company has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.01. The company's fifty day moving average is $170.54 and its 200-day moving average is $175.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued 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 net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. Alphabet's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

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.