Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Sold by Cascade Investment Group Inc.

Cascade Investment Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 20.0% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,703 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,920 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.1% of Cascade Investment Group Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Cascade Investment Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,413,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,355,724,000 after acquiring an additional 7,470,042 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876,534 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,963,128,000 after purchasing an additional 979,083 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,414,179,000 after buying an additional 684,968 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $4,101,040,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $182.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.3 %

GOOG stock traded up $0.41 on Thursday, hitting $162.44. 6,929,521 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,432,035. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $121.46 and a twelve month high of $193.31. The business’s fifty day moving average is $177.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $163.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares in the company, valued at $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total transaction of $3,652,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,182,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $354,310,204.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 121,608 shares of company stock valued at $21,567,504 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet 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.