Private Ocean LLC Trims Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Private Ocean LLC cut its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Private Ocean LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $542,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 87.7% during the 1st quarter. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC now owns 31,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,748,000 after acquiring an additional 14,694 shares during the period. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.7% during the first quarter. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC now owns 21,355 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,223,000 after purchasing an additional 1,150 shares during the period. First Bank & Trust boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% during the first quarter. First Bank & Trust now owns 9,694 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,463,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the period. Saratoga Research & Investment Management increased its stake in Alphabet by 19.1% in the 1st quarter. Saratoga Research & Investment Management now owns 1,001,128 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $151,100,000 after buying an additional 160,884 shares during the period. Finally, Grimes & Company Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. now owns 176,121 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,582,000 after buying an additional 2,727 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,623,355.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 123,788 shares of company stock worth $21,143,403 over the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.2 %

Alphabet stock opened at $185.24 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.35 and a fifty-two week high of $186.05. The company has a market cap of $2.29 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.41, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.15. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $173.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $154.80.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $66.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.17 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.27%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Susquehanna upped their target price on Alphabet from $170.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. UBS Group raised their price target on Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $193.66.

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.