Portside Wealth Group LLC Reduces Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Portside Wealth Group LLC decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 50,189 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 893 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.4% of Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,841,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal 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 dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 163,270 shares of company stock worth $26,553,563. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday. Needham & Company LLC cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.6%

Shares of GOOG opened at $167.71 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.83, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $161.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 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 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is 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 yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio 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.