Abel Hall LLC Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Abel Hall LLC reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.4% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,325 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 244 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 0.6% of Abel Hall LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 29th largest position. Abel Hall LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $890,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.1% during the second quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,880 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $345,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% in the second quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 3,636 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $667,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 2,944 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $540,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Montecito Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Montecito Bank & Trust now owns 16,790 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,080,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sunburst Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC now owns 2,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $495,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays upped their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research upped their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, DA Davidson raised shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total transaction of $3,614,175.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,114,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,713,977.55. This trade represents a 1.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,421,948.46. The trade was a 8.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 163,624 shares of company stock valued at $27,803,730. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.3 %

Alphabet stock opened at $176.49 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.41, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $171.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $171.71. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $131.06 and a twelve month high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.