Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Sells 6,192 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 206,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 6,192 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $37,839,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 19.7% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876,534 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after acquiring an additional 7,470,042 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 51.8% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,416,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $976,923,000 after acquiring an additional 2,190,795 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vima LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 178,253.1% in the 1st quarter. Vima LLC now owns 2,001,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $304,691,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000,000 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on GOOG. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $164.64 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $166.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $167.02. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $121.46 and a 1 year high of $193.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08. The company has a market capitalization 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.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total transaction of $4,201,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,227,385 shares in the company, valued at $415,941,874.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total transaction of $4,201,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,227,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $415,941,874.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at $5,623,355.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 202,667 shares of company stock worth $33,964,256. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet 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.