Castleview Partners LLC Decreases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Castleview Partners LLC cut its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 26.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,436 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,956 shares during the period. Castleview Partners LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $849,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% during the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG traded down $6.25 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $167.73. The company's stock had a trading volume of 55,028,071 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,577,235. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.70, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.01. The business's fifty day moving average is $166.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.39.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOG. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp cut their target price on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Susquehanna reissued a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $204.88.

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.