Running Point Capital Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Running Point Capital Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 12.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,229 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 181 shares during the quarter. Running Point Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $204,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 43,005.6% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,086,250,000 after buying an additional 18,700,111 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 587.4% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,772,991,000 after purchasing an additional 9,135,056 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 116.4% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,437,957,000 after purchasing an additional 4,662,809 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 18,810.2% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $807,700,000 after purchasing an additional 4,410,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 143.7% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,072,197 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,288,201,000 after purchasing an additional 4,170,229 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.0 %

Alphabet stock opened at $172.64 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $129.68 and a fifty-two week high of $191.75. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $169.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $170.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.61%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. This trade represents a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total value of $3,614,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,114,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $339,713,977.55. The trade was a 1.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 163,624 shares of company stock valued at $27,803,730 over the last quarter. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $217.00 price target (up from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JMP Securities increased their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 14th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.90.

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.