Element Capital Management LLC Cuts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Element Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 69.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,725 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 12,785 shares during the quarter. Element Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,050,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $37,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Slocum Gordon & Co LLP purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $44,000. Hoese & Co LLP grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 62.5% in the second quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 260 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $48,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $182.86.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,765,346. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total transaction of $3,442,233.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 39,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,307,206.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,765,346. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 201,867 shares of company stock valued at $34,218,581 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $158.37 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.95 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $121.46 and a 12-month high of $193.31. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $169.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $166.35.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The business’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.44 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.27%.

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.