First Foundation Advisors Reduces Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

First Foundation Advisors decreased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 9.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 41,058 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 4,292 shares during the quarter. First Foundation Advisors' holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,349,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 242.9% in the 1st quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the period. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. IMA Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Elite Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.23, for a total value of $6,377,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,494,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $489,572,657.16. The trade was a 1.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. The trade was a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 273,219 shares of company stock valued at $49,474,273 in the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $0.43 during trading on Thursday, reaching $196.52. 26,014,319 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 38,764,620. The stock has a market cap of $2.38 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.93, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $180.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $173.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. The company had revenue of $96,428,000 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $93.60 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $196.00 to $201.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Roth Capital raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Citizens Jmp raised Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.53.

Alphabet Company 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.