Advisory Alpha LLC Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Advisory Alpha LLC decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 47.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,028 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 10,814 shares during the quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,879,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock 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. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $203.94.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% 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, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director now directly owns 261,966 shares in the company, valued at $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 163,159 shares of company stock valued at $26,534,426 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of Alphabet stock traded down $2.40 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $170.45. The company had a trading volume of 15,491,694 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,221,808. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The company has a 50 day moving average of $160.88 and a 200 day moving average of $176.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.