Eagle Rock Investment Company LLC Cuts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Eagle Rock Investment Company LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,089 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 127 shares during the quarter. Eagle Rock Investment Company LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,889,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. now owns 1,941 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $370,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Arlington Trust Co LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 14,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,747,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. Ethos Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 7,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,395,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Hutchinson Capital Management CA lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Hutchinson Capital Management CA now owns 3,555 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $677,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, Tempus Wealth Planning LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Tempus Wealth Planning LLC now owns 3,337 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $636,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Tigress Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $174.92 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $161.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,192,275. The trade was a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.