Middleton & Co. Inc. MA Sells 570 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Middleton & Co. Inc. MA reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 42,797 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 570 shares during the period. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,850,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $37,000. Slocum Gordon & Co LLP purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Hoese & Co LLP boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 62.5% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $48,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.5 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $163.24 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $166.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $166.58. 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.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current 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 $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total value of $4,201,650.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,227,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $415,941,874.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total value of $4,201,650.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,227,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $415,941,874.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.85, for a total transaction of $278,775.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 30,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,728,640.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 202,667 shares of company stock valued at $33,964,256 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. 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 note on Friday, June 28th. Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Three research 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.86.

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.