Thompson Davis & CO. Inc. Lowers Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Thompson Davis & CO. Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 27.5% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,247 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 854 shares during the period. Thompson Davis & CO. Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $351,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,376,706,000 after purchasing an additional 5,758,244 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,917,625 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 39,148,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,455,571,000 after acquiring an additional 294,556 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on GOOG. Lake Street Capital reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. BNP Paribas downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Barclays reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $215.19.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $203.82 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $184.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.82. The company has a market capitalization of $2.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The business’s revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.79, for a total value of $122,274.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,287,137.64. This trade represents a 8.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.23, for a total transaction of $6,377,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,494,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $489,572,657.16. This trade represents a 1.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 274,819 shares of company stock worth $49,796,547 over the last quarter. Company 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.