Ballast Advisors LLC Sells 502 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ballast Advisors LLC cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,429 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 502 shares during the quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,242,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,985 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,465,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,880 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $345,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 3,636 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $667,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV grew its position in Alphabet by 2.0% in the second quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 2,944 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $540,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 11.1% during the first quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC now owns 600 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the transaction, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,779.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,765,346. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 232,052 shares of company stock worth $38,424,448 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 4.0 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $178.33 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $129.40 and a 1-year high of $193.31. The company has a 50-day moving average of $164.24 and a 200 day moving average of $170.89. The firm has a market cap of $2.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

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.