Sterling Financial Planning Inc. Reduces Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Sterling Financial Planning Inc. decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,891 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Sterling Financial Planning Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $347,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,232,000. GUNN & Co INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT INC. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 964.3% in the fourth quarter. GUNN & Co INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT INC. now owns 482,698 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,027,000 after buying an additional 437,345 shares in the last quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 15.5% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 29,159 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,109,000 after buying an additional 3,924 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 1,980,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $279,143,000 after buying an additional 48,640 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 2,675,163 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $377,010,000 after buying an additional 135,028 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOG. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Oppenheimer boosted 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. Rosenblatt Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $182.86.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,765,346. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,727 shares in the company, valued at approximately $663,107.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 179,065 shares of company stock valued at $31,025,543 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $165.11 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.03 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $121.46 and a 12-month high of $193.31. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $175.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $165.12.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.44 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.27%.

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.