Synovus Financial Corp Sells 13,150 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Synovus Financial Corp reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 8.3% in Q1, selling 13,150 shares and now holding 145,779 shares valued at $22.775 million.
• Alphabet's shares have received updated ratings from analysts, with Scotiabank raising its price target to $240 and JPMorgan Chase increasing theirs to $232.
• Insider transactions show significant sales, with CEO Sundar Pichai selling 32,500 shares for approximately $6.5 million, which decreased his ownership by 1.30%.

Synovus Financial Corp reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 8.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 145,779 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 13,150 shares during the quarter. Synovus Financial Corp's holdings in Alphabet were worth $22,775,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 111.8% in the 1st quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $26,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $34,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Piper Sandler reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Scotiabank raised their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Tigress Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Roth Capital reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $215.19.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.79, for a total value of $122,274.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 6,316 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,287,137.64. The trade was a 8.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.92, for a total value of $6,497,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,462,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $492,281,408.64. This represents a 1.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 254,719 shares of company stock valued at $47,223,172. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 3.0%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $206.72 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $209.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $187.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.50 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is 8.95%.

Alphabet Company 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.

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