Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Arete Wealth Advisors LLC has reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 7.5%, now holding 59,474 shares worth approximately $9.2 million.
• Alphabet recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, with the dividend yield set at 0.4%.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Alphabet, with Needham & Company projecting a new target of $260.00 and a "buy" rating.

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 7.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 59,474 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 4,827 shares during the quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $9,198,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter worth $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Alphabet by 307.6% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,302,644 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,593,201,000 after purchasing an additional 7,774,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $1,375,509,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.79, for a total transaction of $122,274.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,316 shares in the company, valued at $1,287,137.64. The trade was a 8.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total transaction of $7,466,225.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,429,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $558,219,089.16. This represents a 1.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 254,710 shares of company stock worth $49,208,380 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.4%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $5.59 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $239.63. 37,672,216 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 34,417,184. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $240.47. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $198.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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 $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.60 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $217.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Loop Capital reaffirmed a "hold" rating and issued a $190.00 price objective (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $221.44.

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.