DAVENPORT & Co LLC Sells 14,746 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

DAVENPORT & Co LLC reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 309,614 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 14,746 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $54,926,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $26,000. IFS Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 400.0% during the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Robbins Farley increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 60.0% in the second quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter worth about $32,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total value of $7,910,825.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,402,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $584,699,785.79. This represents a 1.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 276,738 shares of company stock worth $59,135,475. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. BNP Paribas lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. KeyCorp set a $265.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Phillip Securities lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.33.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of GOOG opened at $247.13 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $256.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.99 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $224.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $188.32.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.