Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Barrett & Company Inc.

Barrett & Company Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,014 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 63 shares during the period. Barrett & Company Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,588,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 242.9% in the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. IMA Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 85.7% during the 1st quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Roth Capital boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley set a $270.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 15th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $236.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, HSBC began coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $285.00 target price for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $245.88.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $466,000,536.96. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at $45,213,984. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 276,738 shares of company stock valued at $59,135,475. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $236.57 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $256.00. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $226.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $188.49.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 8.95%.

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.