Mason & Associates Inc Sells 6,169 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Mason & Associates Inc cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 39.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,400 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 6,169 shares during the period. Mason & Associates Inc's holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,469,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $22,470,344,000 after acquiring an additional 3,189,592 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $19,894,651,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219,606 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its stake in Alphabet by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $17,376,706,000 after acquiring an additional 5,758,244 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Alphabet by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,917,625 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in Alphabet by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 39,148,500 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $7,455,571,000 after acquiring an additional 294,556 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group dropped their price target on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Susquehanna restated a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $204.88.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% 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, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total value of $5,483,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,587,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $436,570,192.16. This trade represents a 1.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG traded down $3.25 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $173.98. The company had a trading volume of 32,365,363 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,579,230. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $208.70. The firm has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.40, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.01. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $165.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.44.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. Alphabet's revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.