Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Position Cut by WCG Wealth Advisors LLC

WCG Wealth Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 24,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 639 shares during the period. WCG Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,279,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Pinkerton Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Pinkerton Wealth LLC now owns 13,437 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,384,000 after purchasing an additional 998 shares during the period. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the second quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 182,722 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $32,413,000 after purchasing an additional 3,607 shares during the period. Grove Street Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $226,000. Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltd boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 12.9% during the second quarter. Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltd now owns 40,652 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,211,000 after buying an additional 4,644 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 330.4% during the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,989,463 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $707,691,000 after buying an additional 3,062,590 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $315.12 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $271.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $221.40. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $328.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total transaction of $800,786.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,383,884.14. This trade represents a 19.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $296.64, for a total value of $9,640,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,304,619 shares in the company, valued at $683,642,180.16. The trade was a 1.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 227,850 shares of company stock valued at $58,874,814. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Barclays raised their price target on Alphabet from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $330.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $307.22.

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.