Wambolt & Associates LLC Decreases Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Wambolt & Associates LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 25.5% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,153 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,447 shares during the period. Wambolt & Associates LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,258,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Gimbal Financial raised its stake in Alphabet by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Gimbal Financial now owns 2,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $489,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the second quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co now owns 16,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,981,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Silver Coast Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Silver Coast Investments LLC now owns 4,317 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $761,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 6,477 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,141,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, Bfsg LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 10,428 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,838,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $321.27 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $328.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $276.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $224.51. The company has a market cap of $3.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.68, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 226,128 shares of company stock worth $61,326,372. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. BMO Capital Markets set a $294.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. New Street Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $275.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Moffett Nathanson raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $333.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $312.65.

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.