Virtue Capital Management LLC Reduces Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Virtue Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 48.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,880 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,752 shares during the quarter. Virtue Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $511,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Scotia Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.1% in the second quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 1,480,337 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $262,580,000 after acquiring an additional 44,736 shares during the period. Level Four Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC now owns 37,573 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,665,000 after purchasing an additional 1,665 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. now owns 21,166 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,755,000 after purchasing an additional 557 shares in the last quarter. Capital Fund Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 12.8% in the 2nd quarter. Capital Fund Management S.A. now owns 43,060 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,638,000 after purchasing an additional 4,901 shares during the period. Finally, Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.9% during the second quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. now owns 14,709 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,656,000 after buying an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total value of $168,036.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,264,750.96. This trade represents a 11.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $291.80, for a total transaction of $32,681.60. Following the sale, the director directly owned 18,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,253,567.20. This represents a 0.62% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 227,850 shares of company stock valued at $58,874,814 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. HSBC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $335.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Alphabet from $285.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. TD Cowen upped their price target on Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. DA Davidson set a $300.00 price target on Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Scotiabank set a $336.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $304.62.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.1%

GOOG stock opened at $319.95 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $328.67. The business’s 50-day moving average is $269.82 and its 200 day moving average is $219.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market cap of $3.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.55, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.12 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

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.