Investment Partners LTD. Cuts Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Investment Partners LTD. lowered its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 7,370 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 248 shares during the quarter. Investment Partners LTD.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,307,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. IFS Advisors LLC grew 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 worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the period. Robbins Farley boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 60.0% during the 2nd quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 58.7% during the 2nd quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Fairman Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 121.3% in the 2nd quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the insider owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This trade represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,236,785. This trade represents a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 221,796 shares of company stock worth $53,983,001 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $279.12 on Friday. 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 company has a market cap of $3.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $292.36. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $257.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $208.69.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.12 EPS. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on GOOG shares. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.81.

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.