Cetera Trust Company N.A Lowers Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Cetera Trust Company N.A lessened its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,519 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Cetera Trust Company N.A’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,511,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after buying an additional 135,064,454 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at about $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after acquiring an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter worth approximately $369,713,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GOOG. DA Davidson set a $825.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, October 27th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank set a $336.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.81.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $279.70 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market cap of $3.38 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $251.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $205.14. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $291.93.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.12 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the business’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 transaction, the insider owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at $10,635,348.70. The trade was a 29.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total value of $680,610.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,236,785. This trade represents a 13.84% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 222,396 shares of company stock valued at $54,105,275. Corporate 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.