Marathon Asset Management Ltd cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 10.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 235,053 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 25,973 shares during the quarter. Marathon Asset Management Ltd's holdings in Alphabet were worth $36,721,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,964 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $945,000 after acquiring an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.2% in the first quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 14,907 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,329,000 after acquiring an additional 1,376 shares during the period. Harvest Investment Services LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $824,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $281,000. Finally, Fermata Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 9,771 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,527,000 after acquiring an additional 259 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup reaffirmed a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and six have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $206.38.
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Insider Buying and Selling
In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 216,195 shares of company stock worth $35,764,898 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Alphabet Price Performance
Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG traded up $3.84 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $178.27. 73,956,281 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,984,165. The stock has a market cap of $2.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.87, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $167.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.02.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.
Alphabet Profile
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Free Report)
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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