Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by Cigna Investments Inc. New

Cigna Investments Inc. New trimmed its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 49,041 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 998 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 1.4% of Cigna Investments Inc. New’s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Cigna Investments Inc. New’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,661,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 14,246,573 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after buying an additional 9,687,855 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after buying an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $786,942,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Pivotal Research increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Barclays reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $215.19.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 6,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,383,200. This trade represents a 12.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. This trade represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 254,710 shares of company stock worth $47,225,230. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $213.53 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The firm has a market cap of $2.58 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50-day moving average of $191.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $175.41. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $215.34.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

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.