Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG Reduces Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG reduced its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 467,958 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 38,577 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.7% of Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $73,109,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC now owns 28,044 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,341,000 after purchasing an additional 2,390 shares during the last quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 31,967 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,088,000 after acquiring an additional 380 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $204,262,000. Finally, Ascent Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 246.2% in the 4th quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,698 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,085,000 after acquiring an additional 4,052 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Westpark Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Needham & Company LLC cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Tigress Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.88.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.6%

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $175.88 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $164.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.38. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.85, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% 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 Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the business’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 sale, the director now owns 261,966 shares in the company, valued at $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total transaction of $5,483,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,587,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $436,570,192.16. The trade was a 1.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.