Liberty Capital Management Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Liberty Capital Management Inc. cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 224 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.1% of Liberty Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Liberty Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,620,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $8,232,000. GUNN & Co INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT INC. boosted its position in 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 valued at $68,027,000 after buying an additional 437,345 shares during the last quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 15.5% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 29,159 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,109,000 after buying an additional 3,924 shares during the last quarter. EWA LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 26.8% in the fourth quarter. EWA LLC now owns 4,345 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $624,000 after acquiring an additional 917 shares during the period. Finally, Intrust Bank NA lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Intrust Bank NA now owns 54,724 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,712,000 after acquiring an additional 1,849 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOG. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded 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. TD Cowen boosted their price target on 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 Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $182.86.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total value of $3,772,350.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,159,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $362,126,319.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total value of $3,772,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,159,885 shares in the company, valued at $362,126,319.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 179,065 shares of company stock valued at $31,025,543 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.7 %

Alphabet stock traded down $1.10 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $163.40. 15,215,745 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,159,738. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $175.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $165.02. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $121.46 and a 12-month high of $193.31. The firm has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. Research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 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. 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 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.27%.

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.