Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 252,425 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 13,250 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.1% of Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest position. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $44,778,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter worth $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after buying an additional 9,687,855 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after buying an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17,547.9% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,122,727 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $731,331,000 after buying an additional 4,099,366 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. DA Davidson set a $300.00 target price on Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. Pivotal Research raised their price objective on Alphabet from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $304.62.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total value of $8,129,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,369,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $592,760,192.85. This represents a 1.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. The trade was a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 227,952 shares of company stock valued at $58,896,009. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.6%

Alphabet stock opened at $323.64 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $265.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $217.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market cap of $3.91 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $328.67.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.12 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.28%.

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.