Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.4% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 17,536 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 70 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 0.6% of Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,740,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% during the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Needham & Company LLC cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $171.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.88.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total transaction of $5,483,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,587,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $436,570,192.16. The trade was a 1.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 3.0%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $174.92 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $161.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The firm has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 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.