Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC Trims Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 36.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 356 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $63,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $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 boosted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 4,473,901 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 593,345 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the 1st 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. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 1st 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 currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $245.45 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $228.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $189.86. The stock has a market cap of $2.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $256.00.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total value of $7,910,825.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,402,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $584,699,785.79. The trade was a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 953 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.20, for a total value of $229,863.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,294 shares in the company, valued at $4,171,312.80. This trade represents a 5.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 243,838 shares of company stock valued at $53,070,333. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Melius Research increased their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a report on Thursday, September 25th. HSBC started coverage on Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $285.00 target price for the company. Finally, Moffett Nathanson increased their target price on Alphabet from $230.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $249.26.

Alphabet Company 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.