Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC Cuts Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,656 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 400 shares during the period. Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,030,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 14.4% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,980,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,374,756 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its stake in Alphabet by 39,754.9% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $841,725,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 143.7% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,072,197 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,288,201,000 after purchasing an additional 4,170,229 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $190.00 price target for the company. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $176.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $222.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.76.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $151.16 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $1.86 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $120.21 and a fifty-two week high of $191.75. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $168.75 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $164.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,623,355.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 179,367 shares of company stock worth $30,016,931 in the last three months. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet 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.