Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC Has $14.30 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC lessened its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 4.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 91,508 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 4,679 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 0.3% of Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $14,296,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC boosted 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 buying an additional 85 shares during the period. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth about $26,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $38,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and six have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $206.38.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock traded down $2.50 on Tuesday, hitting $175.06. The stock had a trading volume of 9,263,638 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,167,001. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The business's 50 day moving average is $170.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $175.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.87, for a total transaction of $5,553,275.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,620,196 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $447,712,890.52. This represents a 1.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,192,275. This trade represents a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

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.