Watershed Private Wealth LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Watershed Private Wealth LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 31.5% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,769 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,190 shares during the period. Watershed Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $846,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. SGL Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 0.9% during the second quarter. SGL Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 27,753 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,861,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Independent Solutions Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 28.8% during the second quarter. Independent Solutions Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,453,000 after acquiring an additional 3,090 shares in the last quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. grew its stake in Alphabet by 26.6% during the second quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 283,897 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,360,000 after acquiring an additional 59,603 shares in the last quarter. TriaGen Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 3.2% during the second quarter. TriaGen Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,070 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $722,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wise Wealth Partners grew its stake in Alphabet by 180.6% during the second quarter. Wise Wealth Partners now owns 4,114 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $730,000 after acquiring an additional 2,648 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 953 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.20, for a total transaction of $229,863.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,294 shares in the company, valued at $4,171,312.80. This trade represents a 5.22% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.44, for a total transaction of $149,664.00. Following the sale, the director owned 5,716 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,425,799.04. The trade was a 9.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 276,738 shares of company stock worth $59,135,475 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Mizuho raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. UBS Group set a $255.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $241.00.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $237.49 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $226.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $189.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $256.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. The firm 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%. The business’s revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

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.