Balentine LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Balentine LLC trimmed its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 96.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,240 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 106,031 shares during the period. Balentine LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $778,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470,042 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Alphabet by 19.7% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876,534 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.2% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,963,128,000 after purchasing an additional 979,083 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,414,179,000 after purchasing an additional 684,968 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,101,040,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOG. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, June 28th. Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. TD Cowen upped 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. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $182.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $152.15 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $170.36 and its 200 day moving average is $165.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $121.46 and a 1 year high of $193.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.87 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion for 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 revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,623,355.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total transaction of $4,201,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,227,385 shares in the company, valued at $415,941,874.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 201,867 shares of company stock valued at $34,218,581. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.