Lbp Am Sa Decreases Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Lbp Am Sa reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) by 3.0%, selling 12,032 shares and now owning 388,710 shares valued at approximately $68.95 million.
• Analysts have recently raised price targets for Alphabet, with Pivotal Research increasing its target to $300 and several firms issuing an "outperform" rating.
• Alphabet reported a 13.8% year-over-year revenue increase with earnings per share of $2.31, exceeding analyst expectations.

Lbp Am Sa lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 3.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 388,710 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 12,032 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 1.0% of Lbp Am Sa's holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest position. Lbp Am Sa's holdings in Alphabet were worth $68,953,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. ACT Advisors LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% in the second quarter. ACT Advisors LLC. now owns 1,625 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $288,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. LongView Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% in the second quarter. LongView Wealth Management now owns 5,126 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $909,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Kooman & Associates increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% in the second quarter. Kooman & Associates now owns 4,127 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $732,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the period. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.4% in the second quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,742 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $309,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, Brueske Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.7% in the second quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,194 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $389,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Pivotal Research increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $245.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $270.00 price objective (up previously from $235.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $210.00 price objective (up previously from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $235.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 103 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.13, for a total value of $25,042.39. Following the sale, the director owned 17,284 shares in the company, valued at $4,202,258.92. This trade represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 276,738 shares of company stock valued at $59,135,475. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.4%

GOOG stock opened at $246.43 on Friday. The firm's fifty day moving average is $220.84 and its 200 day moving average is $186.43. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $256.70. The firm has a market cap of $2.98 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

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.

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