Wedbush Securities Inc. Reduces Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Wedbush Securities Inc. reduced its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 120,631 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,203 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 0.8% of Wedbush Securities Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $22,126,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Gilbert & Cook Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 15.5% during the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 29,159 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,109,000 after purchasing an additional 3,924 shares in the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 25.0% in the 4th quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 16,440 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,317,000 after buying an additional 3,283 shares during the last quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,647 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $937,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 103.9% in the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 10,181 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,435,000 after acquiring an additional 5,188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 26,719 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,766,000 after purchasing an additional 1,143 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

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

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The business 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%. The business’s quarterly 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 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.86.

Insider Activity

In related 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 value of $3,991,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,213,011 shares in the company, valued at $392,588,151.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.40, for a total value of $3,991,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,213,011 shares in the company, valued at $392,588,151.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 201,867 shares of company stock valued at $34,218,581 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.