Brass Tax Wealth Management Inc. Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Brass Tax Wealth Management Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 13.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,158 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 472 shares during the quarter. Brass Tax Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $493,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% in the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at $26,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG stock opened at $180.22 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.09, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $169.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $175.40. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,575,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 255,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,695,000. This trade represents a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 215,643 shares of company stock valued at $36,330,928 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on GOOG. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and six have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.38.

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.