Studio Investment Management LLC Sells 140 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Studio Investment Management LLC trimmed its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 27.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 367 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 140 shares during the period. Studio Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $70,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 17,606 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,353,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares during the period. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC now owns 28,044 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,341,000 after purchasing an additional 2,390 shares during the last quarter. R.H. Investment Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $4,452,000. Rovin Capital UT ADV lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 23.4% during the 4th quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 2,908 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $554,000 after purchasing an additional 551 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Winch Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 65,288 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,433,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total value of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,652,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 179,324 shares of company stock worth $30,153,353 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on GOOG. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.94.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $167.43 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $160.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $176.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.03 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

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.