Middleton & Co. Inc. MA Reduces Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Middleton & Co. Inc. MA reduced its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.3% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 42,797 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 570 shares during the period. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,850,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings 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 period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 13,876,534 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 979,083 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,414,179,000 after buying an additional 684,968 shares during the period. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 28,558,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,024,679,000 after buying an additional 813,428 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $163.24 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $121.46 and a fifty-two week high of $193.31. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $166.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $166.58. The company has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.04, a P/E/G 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly 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 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.44 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.27%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total transaction of $115,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 29,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,838,460. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 202,667 shares of company stock valued at $33,964,256 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the stock. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.86.

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.