Morningstar Investment Services LLC Sells 22,589 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Morningstar Investment Services LLC decreased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 46.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 26,175 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 22,589 shares during the period. Morningstar Investment Services LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,089,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% in the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at $26,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Tigress Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Westpark Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective 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. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $186.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $208.40.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of GOOG stock traded up $1.24 on Friday, reaching $185.94. The company had a trading volume of 20,915,424 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,587,144. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.26 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.73, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50-day moving average of $174.02 and a 200-day moving average of $174.72. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for 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 business's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. 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 dividend yield of 0.45%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at $466,000,536.96. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 261,966 shares of the company's stock, valued at $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 215,843 shares of company stock valued at $37,288,490. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.