Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Position Reduced by First Western Trust Bank

First Western Trust Bank reduced its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.9% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 11,442 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 227 shares during the period. First Western Trust Bank’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,030,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after acquiring an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after buying an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.9% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after buying an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter worth approximately $369,713,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $330.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $275.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.81.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.9%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $279.12 on Friday. 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 one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $292.36. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $257.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $208.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.53, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.12 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total value of $8,129,875.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,369,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $592,760,192.85. This represents a 1.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 221,796 shares of company stock valued at $53,983,001. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Company 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.