Mason & Associates Inc Trims Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Mason & Associates Inc trimmed its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 39.6% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 9,400 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 6,169 shares during the quarter. Mason & Associates Inc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,469,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sentry LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.5% in the 1st quarter. Sentry LLC now owns 9,472 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,480,000 after purchasing an additional 742 shares during the period. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC now owns 39,542 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,178,000 after purchasing an additional 2,644 shares during the period. Great Lakes Retirement Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 21.0% in the 1st quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc. now owns 1,878 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $293,000 after purchasing an additional 326 shares during the period. Adero Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 113.8% during the 1st quarter. Adero Partners LLC now owns 150,364 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $23,491,000 after buying an additional 80,024 shares during the period. Finally, Montecito Bank & Trust raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Montecito Bank & Trust now owns 16,370 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,557,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Citigroup reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.88.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $177.94 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.10, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $165.19 and a 200-day moving average of $176.43. 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 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion during 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%. The business’s revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

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.