SlateStone Wealth LLC Sells 3,539 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

SlateStone Wealth LLC lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 64,991 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 3,539 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.3% of SlateStone Wealth LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $11,921,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Partnership Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $37,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wolfe Research raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, 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 note on Friday, June 28th. One investment 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $182.86.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total transaction of $4,201,650.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,227,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $415,941,874.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total value of $4,201,650.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,227,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $415,941,874.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was 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 owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 179,065 shares of company stock worth $31,025,543. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG traded up $0.50 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $167.93. 11,975,908 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,259,232. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $121.46 and a 52-week high of $193.31. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $176.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $164.91. The company has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Alphabet Company 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.