Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC Lowers Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC decreased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 24,437 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 785 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 2.2% of Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,721,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Partnership Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.40, for a total transaction of $3,991,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,213,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $392,588,151.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.40, for a total transaction of $3,991,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,213,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $392,588,151.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 146,284 shares of company stock worth $24,534,393. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $183.42 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50 day moving average of $174.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $155.68. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.83 and a 52-week high of $187.50. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.38. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $78.75 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.17 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $167.86.

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.