Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. Cuts Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 42,119 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,591 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 0.8% of Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest position. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,472,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. REDW Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. REDW Wealth LLC now owns 2,410 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $428,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. ACT Advisors LLC. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.5% in the second quarter. ACT Advisors LLC. now owns 1,625 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $288,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Moser Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 2.2% during the second quarter. Moser Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,545 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $451,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. LongView Wealth Management grew its position in Alphabet by 1.1% during the second quarter. LongView Wealth Management now owns 5,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $909,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the period. Finally, Kooman & Associates increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% during the second quarter. Kooman & Associates now owns 4,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $732,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOG. DA Davidson set a $825.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Scotiabank set a $336.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.81.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $279.70 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $291.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The company has a market capitalization of $3.38 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $251.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $205.14.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.12 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 954 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.33, for a total transaction of $269,342.82. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 14,517 shares in the company, valued at $4,098,584.61. This trade represents a 6.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 222,396 shares of company stock worth $54,105,275 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.