Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by Means Investment CO. Inc.

Means Investment CO. Inc. cut its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 94,418 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 405 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 1.6% of Means Investment CO. Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Means Investment CO. Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $16,749,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after acquiring an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $369,713,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group set a $255.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target (up previously from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $241.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total value of $4,637,754.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at $8,371,905.30. This trade represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.50, for a total value of $8,108,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,397,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $598,149,304. This trade represents a 1.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 244,438 shares of company stock worth $53,216,085 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $251.71 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $256.70. The company has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $230.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $191.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

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.