Quotient Wealth Partners LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Quotient Wealth Partners LLC decreased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 32,628 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,996 shares during the quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,046,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,483,898,000 after acquiring an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.98, for a total transaction of $72,792.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,094,245.74. This represents a 6.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 183,343 shares of company stock valued at $31,296,140 in the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $182.97 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.22 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $171.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $173.20.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. DA Davidson dropped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.86.

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.