Baldwin Investment Management LLC Sells 280 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Baldwin Investment Management LLC lessened its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 16,600 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 280 shares during the period. Baldwin Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,775,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.5% in the third quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 385,951 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,527,000 after buying an additional 23,538 shares during the period. Principal Street Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 97.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Street Partners LLC now owns 27,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,997,000 after acquiring an additional 13,464 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its holdings in Alphabet by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 29,921 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,002,000 after acquiring an additional 1,805 shares in the last quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 222,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $37,162,000 after acquiring an additional 2,150 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,445,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report 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 report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank began coverage on Alphabet in a report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Five investment 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $170.62 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $169.51 and its 200 day moving average is $171.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.63, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $129.40 and a fifty-two week high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. This trade represents a 8.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet 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.