Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC Decreases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 17.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,390 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 3,845 shares during the period. Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,075,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,815,986,000 after acquiring an additional 13,876,534 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,355,724,000 after acquiring an additional 7,470,042 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 65.9% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 6,294,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,052,349,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500,621 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 51.8% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,416,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $976,923,000 after acquiring an additional 2,190,795 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup raised their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Pivotal Research raised their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $172.65 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market capitalization of $2.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.90, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.04. The business has a 50 day moving average of $163.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $170.43. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $128.11 and a 12-month high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.83 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares in the company, valued at $5,136,807.48. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares in the company, valued at $5,136,807.48. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total value of $3,652,875.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,182,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $354,310,204.75. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 230,244 shares of company stock worth $37,776,954. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.