Hollencrest Capital Management Lowers Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Hollencrest Capital Management lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 20.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 48,567 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 12,178 shares during the period. Hollencrest Capital Management's holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,588,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $5,166,070,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,237,733,000 after buying an additional 14,246,573 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Alphabet by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,873,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,917,625 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 181,679.1% in the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,376,066,000 after acquiring an additional 7,221,746 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $17,376,706,000 after acquiring an additional 5,758,244 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,527,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $466,000,536.96. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 261,966 shares in the company, valued at $45,844,050. This trade represents a 3.85% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 215,843 shares of company stock worth $37,288,490. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. 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. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $208.40.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock traded up $1.24 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $185.94. 20,915,424 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,559,132. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month 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 business has a 50 day moving average of $173.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $174.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share 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 issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

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.