Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC Has $662,000 Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 23.7% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,283 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,333 shares during the period. Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $662,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 36.1% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $49,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $51,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 261,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,844,050. This trade represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 163,270 shares of company stock worth $26,553,563 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $166.18 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $159.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $174.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The company has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal 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. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

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.