Cliftonlarsonallen Wealth Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Cliftonlarsonallen Wealth Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 8.4% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 13,823 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,267 shares during the period. Cliftonlarsonallen Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,160,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC now owns 28,044 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,341,000 after purchasing an additional 2,390 shares during the period. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 31,967 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,088,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $204,262,000. Finally, Ascent Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 246.2% in the 4th quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,698 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,085,000 after acquiring an additional 4,052 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG stock opened at $175.88 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $164.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.34.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on GOOG. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup restated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $171.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.88.

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.