Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Holdings Cut by Montag A & Associates Inc.

Montag A & Associates Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.9% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 260,799 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 16,331 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 2.0% of Montag A & Associates Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Montag A & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $40,745,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,166,070,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 18,562.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,237,733,000 after acquiring an additional 14,246,573 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,917,625 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 181,679.1% in the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,376,066,000 after acquiring an additional 7,221,746 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Alphabet by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,376,706,000 after acquiring an additional 5,758,244 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 261,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 215,843 shares of company stock worth $37,288,490 in the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. Needham & Company LLC downgraded 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. Citigroup reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.40.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7%

GOOG opened at $185.94 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.73, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The company has a fifty day moving average of $174.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $174.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.