Black Diamond Financial LLC Trims Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Black Diamond Financial LLC lowered its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 585 shares during the quarter. Black Diamond Financial LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,678,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth about $26,000. IFS Advisors LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 400.0% in the 2nd quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the period. Robbins Farley increased its stake in Alphabet by 60.0% in the 2nd quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. WestEnd Advisors LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 58.7% in the 2nd quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the period. Finally, Fairman Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 121.3% in the 2nd quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total value of $8,129,875.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,369,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $592,760,192.85. This trade represents a 1.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 103 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.13, for a total transaction of $25,042.39. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 17,284 shares in the company, valued at $4,202,258.92. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 246,150 shares of company stock worth $55,805,379. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Oppenheimer set a $300.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Scotiabank reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $249.68.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.7%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $260.51 on Friday. 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 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $262.51. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $237.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $196.32. The stock has a market cap of $3.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.74, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.67 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.