Epoch Investment Partners Inc. Cuts Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,159,111 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 58,002 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.0% of Epoch Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest position. Epoch Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $212,604,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the second quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,985 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,465,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,880 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $345,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 3,636 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $667,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the second quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 2,944 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $540,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 11.1% in the first quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC now owns 600 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $164.64 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $166.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $167.02. The company has a market cap of $2.03 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $121.46 and a twelve month high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, June 28th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, DA Davidson upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at $5,623,355.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.75, for a total transaction of $123,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 28,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,385,565. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 202,667 shares of company stock valued at $33,964,256 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.