Metis Global Partners LLC Sells 394 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Metis Global Partners LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 302,480 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 394 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 1.7% of Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $46,056,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $4,101,040,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $11,600,970,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 198.7% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,882,882 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $547,215,000 after buying an additional 2,583,128 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 93.9% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,591,383 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $647,064,000 after buying an additional 2,222,950 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 50.2% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 3,918,113 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $596,572,000 after buying an additional 1,308,691 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOG. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total value of $4,201,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,227,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $415,941,874.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total value of $4,201,650.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,227,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $415,941,874.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.67, for a total transaction of $113,668.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,880,764.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 145,488 shares of company stock valued at $25,217,405. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG traded down $0.52 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $186.78. 14,449,113 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,160,819. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $179.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $159.06. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $118.68 and a 52-week high of $193.31. The company has a market cap of $2.31 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.65, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.17 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

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.