Madrona Financial Services LLC Reduces Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Madrona Financial Services LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 33.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,611 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 3,749 shares during the period. Madrona Financial Services LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,177,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Goldstein Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 23.0% during the first quarter. Goldstein Advisors LLC now owns 13,194 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,040,000 after acquiring an additional 2,469 shares during the last quarter. Oak Hill Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Oak Hill Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 36,711 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,677,000 after purchasing an additional 697 shares during the period. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. now owns 143,288 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $22,158,000 after purchasing an additional 3,258 shares during the last quarter. Sabal Trust CO raised its position in Alphabet by 7.1% during the 1st quarter. Sabal Trust CO now owns 37,170 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,748,000 after purchasing an additional 2,475 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 19,516 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,018,000 after buying an additional 254 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Roth Mkm restated a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $199.95.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $105,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total value of $5,742,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,555,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $451,452,029.28. This trade represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 183,143 shares of company stock valued at $30,529,028. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $2.80 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $178.64. The company's stock had a trading volume of 29,091,179 shares, compared to its average volume of 31,445,572. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $167.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $174.17. 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 cap of $2.17 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's payout ratio is 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.