Waverton Investment Management Ltd Sells 1,367 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Waverton Investment Management Ltd lowered its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 38,032 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,367 shares during the quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,745,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOG. IFS Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 400.0% during the 2nd quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Robbins Farley raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 60.0% during the second quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 58.7% in the 2nd quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the period. Fairman Group LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 121.3% during the second quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Finally, Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total value of $680,610.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,236,785. This trade represents a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,635,348.70. This trade represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 189,896 shares of company stock worth $44,892,175. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. DA Davidson set a $825.00 price objective on Alphabet in a report on Monday, October 27th. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $330.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.81.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.2%

Alphabet stock opened at $285.34 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $291.93. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $250.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $204.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The business’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.12 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.28%.

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.