Ballast Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ballast Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,277 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 152 shares during the period. Ballast Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,386,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,094,000 after buying an additional 1,041 shares in the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $281,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,642,000 after purchasing an additional 14,738 shares during the period. Requisite Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $927,000. Finally, Stevens Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 172.9% in the 3rd quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 91,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,254,000 after buying an additional 57,810 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the transaction, the director now owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 93,048 shares of company stock worth $17,374,274 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $165.05 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $184.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $177.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $148.01 and a 1 year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

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.