Saratoga Research & Investment Management Sells 1,783 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Saratoga Research & Investment Management lessened its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 12.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,923 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,783 shares during the quarter. Saratoga Research & Investment Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,370,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,815,986,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876,534 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter worth about $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Alphabet by 9.3% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,355,724,000 after acquiring an additional 7,470,042 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 51.8% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,416,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $976,923,000 after purchasing an additional 2,190,795 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vima LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 178,253.1% during the 1st quarter. Vima LLC now owns 2,001,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $304,691,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,227,385 shares in the company, valued at $415,941,874.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were 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 directly owns 2,227,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $415,941,874.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 200,105 shares of company stock valued at $33,479,581 in the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $179.29.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $165.29 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $121.46 and a one year high of $193.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $164.34 and a 200 day moving average of $168.16. The firm has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.35, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The business’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

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.