Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC has significantly reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 71.6%, now holding 33,477 shares worth approximately $5.9 million.
• Several hedge funds, including Kingstone Capital Partners, have increased their holdings in Alphabet, with Kingstone raising its stake by an astounding 580,897.4% during the same quarter.
• CEO Sundar Pichai recently sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock, resulting in a 1.27% decrease in his ownership, amidst a market response where analysts have upgraded the company's stock ratings.

Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 71.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 33,477 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 84,477 shares during the quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,938,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $23,963,208,000 after buying an additional 135,064,454 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Alphabet by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $369,713,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,527,392 shares in the company, valued at $466,000,536.96. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total value of $4,637,754.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 276,738 shares of company stock worth $59,135,475 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Mizuho upgraded Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $241.00.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $242.21 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.93 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.79, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $226.01 and a 200-day moving average of $189.21. 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 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $256.70.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.