Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers LLC Reduces Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers LLC decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 18.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,200 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 740 shares during the quarter. Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $495,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Macroview Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 1,293 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $245,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 2,381 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $457,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 7,527 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,425,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Burt Wealth Advisors increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors now owns 5,307 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,005,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, Perritt Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in Alphabet by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc now owns 618 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $117,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOGL. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $173.32 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $164.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.73. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a market capitalization of $2.10 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week 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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. The trade was 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, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total value of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,232,544.70. This represents a 2.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.