Transcend Capital Advisors LLC Sells 3,108 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Transcend Capital Advisors LLC decreased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 4.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 61,211 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 3,108 shares during the period. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $9,563,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $22,470,344,000 after purchasing an additional 3,189,592 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $19,894,651,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219,606 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in Alphabet by 6.7% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 294,556 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC lowered shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a 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 six have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $206.38.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 261,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% 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. Insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.2%

GOOG stock traded up $3.84 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $178.27. The company's stock had a trading volume of 73,956,281 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,984,165. The stock has a market cap of $2.16 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.01. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $167.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.02. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share 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 $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

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.