Compass Ion Advisors LLC Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Compass Ion Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,401 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 851 shares during the quarter. Compass Ion Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,187,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $5,166,070,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,237,733,000 after buying an additional 14,246,573 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,551,533,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,917,625 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 181,679.1% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,376,066,000 after acquiring an additional 7,221,746 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total transaction of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,232,544.70. This trade represents a 2.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total value of $5,742,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,555,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $451,452,029.28. This trade represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 228,070 shares of company stock worth $37,745,632. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.6%

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $167.73 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $166.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $176.39.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on GOOG. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. UBS Group decreased their price target on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Westpark Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock 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.