Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Sold by Freedom Investment Management Inc.

Freedom Investment Management Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 13.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,327 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,110 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,225,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Cynosure Group LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 42.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cynosure Group LLC now owns 3,861 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $646,000 after acquiring an additional 1,158 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 385,951 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $64,527,000 after acquiring an additional 23,538 shares during the period. Principal Street Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 97.7% in 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 position in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 29,921 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,002,000 after acquiring an additional 1,805 shares during the period. Finally, Covington Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 222,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,162,000 after acquiring an additional 2,150 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped 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, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Pivotal Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.1 %

GOOG stock opened at $170.82 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $169.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $171.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $129.40 and a 52-week high of $193.31. The firm has a market cap of $2.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.66, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the transaction, the director now owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This trade represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock worth $34,673,866 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.