Kennon Green & Company LLC Lowers Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Kennon Green & Company LLC reduced its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 9.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,579 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.8% of Kennon Green & Company LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Kennon Green & Company LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,234,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $5,166,070,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,237,733,000 after buying an additional 14,246,573 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $1,551,533,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Alphabet by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after buying an additional 7,917,625 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 181,679.1% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,376,066,000 after acquiring an additional 7,221,746 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup restated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group decreased their target price on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and six have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $206.38.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock opened at $176.91 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 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. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $168.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $175.81.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,575,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 255,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,695,000. The trade was a 3.40% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total value of $5,742,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,555,196 shares in the company, valued at $451,452,029.28. This trade represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 183,143 shares of company stock worth $30,529,028. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.