Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Holdings Lowered by Fortitude Advisory Group L.L.C.

Fortitude Advisory Group L.L.C. trimmed its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 9.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,124 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 767 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 0.7% of Fortitude Advisory Group L.L.C.’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Fortitude Advisory Group L.L.C.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,255,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 11.4% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 43,865,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,783,364,000 after acquiring an additional 4,473,901 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 43,648,514 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,749,806,000 after acquiring an additional 593,345 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 39,792,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,153,481,000 after purchasing an additional 727,335 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 38,556,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,962,389,000 after purchasing an additional 104,859 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets set a $294.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Westpark Capital increased their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Alphabet from $191.00 to $224.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $247.40.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $244.15 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.95 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $256.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $227.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $189.47.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.23, for a total transaction of $6,377,475.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,494,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $489,572,657.16. The trade was a 1.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the sale, the director owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 276,338 shares of company stock worth $59,062,683. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.