Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Sold by Lipe & Dalton

Lipe & Dalton lessened its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 2.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 57,066 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,620 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 5.0% of Lipe & Dalton's investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Lipe & Dalton's holdings in Alphabet were worth $8,915,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter worth approximately $4,921,000. Creekmur Asset Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 14.5% during the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 819 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the period. Saturna Capital Corp increased its position in Alphabet by 20.8% during the first quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 1,734 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $271,000 after buying an additional 298 shares during the period. Carson Advisory Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter worth approximately $787,000. Finally, Burling Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 5.0% during the first quarter. Burling Wealth Partners LLC now owns 48,042 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $7,506,000 after buying an additional 2,295 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG traded up $1.24 during trading on Friday, reaching $185.94. 20,915,424 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,559,132. The business's 50 day moving average price is $174.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $174.72. 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 company has a market capitalization of $2.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company 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%. Alphabet's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares in the company, valued at $466,000,536.96. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.98, for a total value of $72,792.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,013 shares in the company, valued at $1,094,245.74. This represents a 6.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 215,843 shares of company stock worth $37,288,490 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on GOOG. BNP Paribas downgraded Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Alphabet from $186.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Barclays reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Susquehanna reiterated a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $208.40.

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.