Nixon Peabody Trust Co. Trims Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Nixon Peabody Trust Co. lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 127,308 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 4,601 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 1.7% of Nixon Peabody Trust Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Nixon Peabody Trust Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $22,583,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter worth about $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $369,713,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.92, for a total transaction of $145,752.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 5,116 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,242,778.72. This represents a 10.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $291.80, for a total value of $32,681.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,253,567.20. This trade represents a 0.62% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 221,796 shares of company stock valued at $53,983,001 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Scotiabank set a $336.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.81.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $279.12 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $292.36. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $257.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $208.69.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

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.