Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Holdings Cut by Cairn Investment Group Inc.

Cairn Investment Group Inc. reduced its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 178 shares during the quarter. Cairn Investment Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,892,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $3,119,000. Optivise Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares during the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,741,000 after acquiring an additional 2,790 shares during the last quarter. Falcon Wealth Planning lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 15.7% during the 1st quarter. Falcon Wealth Planning now owns 9,898 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,531,000 after acquiring an additional 1,340 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Premier Fund Managers Ltd lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 30.0% during the 4th quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 61,792 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,816,000 after acquiring an additional 14,262 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

GOOGL stock opened at $179.08 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The company has a 50-day moving average of $168.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $173.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to a “market outperform” rating and set a $220.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. UBS Group set a $195.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Wedbush set a $190.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $172.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.95.

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.