First National Advisers LLC Reduces Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Key Points

• First National Advisers LLC reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. by 3.3%, now holding 93,117 shares, which represents approximately 2.3% of its portfolio.
• Insider trading activity included sales by Director John L. Hennessy and CEO Sundar Pichai, with a total of 249,409 shares sold over the last three months.
• Alphabet recently reported a quarterly EPS of $2.31, exceeding expectations, and announced a $0.21 quarterly dividend set for payment on September 15th.

First National Advisers LLC cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 3.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 93,117 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 3,211 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 2.3% of First National Advisers LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. First National Advisers LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $14,547,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. 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 worth $26,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter worth about $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.98, for a total transaction of $72,792.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,094,245.74. This trade represents a 6.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at $466,000,536.96. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 249,409 shares of company stock worth $43,523,710. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "equal weight" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $235.00 price objective (up from $220.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Westpark Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $215.19.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of GOOG opened at $194.08 on Friday. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $176.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.53. The company has a market cap of $2.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The firm's revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Alphabet's payout ratio is 8.95%.

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.

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