Bender Robert & Associates Lowers Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Bender Robert & Associates lessened its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 86,823 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 517 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 3.1% of Bender Robert & Associates’ holdings, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Bender Robert & Associates’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $12,236,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Totem Point Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 22.0% during the 1st quarter. Totem Point Management LLC now owns 3,171 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,857,000 after purchasing an additional 571 shares during the last quarter. Somerville Kurt F boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.3% in the first quarter. Somerville Kurt F now owns 118 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $330,000 after buying an additional 11 shares during the last quarter. BCK Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,564,000. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 53.2% during the first quarter. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. now owns 144 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $402,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fairfield Bush & CO. raised its position in Alphabet by 6.8% in the first quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. now owns 3,370 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,412,000 after acquiring an additional 214 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total value of $2,985,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,332,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,548,095.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total transaction of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,332,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,548,095.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares in the company, valued at approximately $243,854,485.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $159.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $155.72 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $103.27 and a twelve month high of $161.70. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $147.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $141.93. The firm has a market cap of $1.94 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $85.28 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.05 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.