Capital Square LLC Cuts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Capital Square LLC lessened its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,449 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 128 shares during the quarter. Capital Square LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $449,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.7% during the second quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,985 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,465,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,880 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $345,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 3,636 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $667,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 2,944 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $540,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 11.1% in the 1st quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC now owns 600 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $158.60 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $121.46 and a 52 week high of $193.31. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $173.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $165.54. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.27%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $182.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.92, for a total transaction of $266,880.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,727 shares in the company, valued at approximately $663,107.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.92, for a total value of $266,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 3,727 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $663,107.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,213,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $392,588,151.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 200,532 shares of company stock worth $34,055,874 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.