Grove Bank & Trust Lowers Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Grove Bank & Trust lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 31,955 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 4,299 shares during the quarter. Grove Bank & Trust’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,783,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $73,927,821,000 after acquiring an additional 5,182,111 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Alphabet by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $33,511,477,000 after purchasing an additional 2,428,266 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 580,897.4% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.4% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 107,760,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,022,926,000 after buying an additional 441,177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% in the second quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 35,357,943 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,272,146,000 after buying an additional 2,117,990 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.5%

Alphabet stock opened at $307.73 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.71 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $328.67. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $286.12 and a 200 day moving average of $232.65.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%.The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total transaction of $168,036.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,516 shares in the company, valued at $1,264,750.96. This trade represents a 11.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total transaction of $10,383,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,272,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $725,942,020.50. The trade was a 1.41% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 193,028 shares of company stock valued at $53,188,134 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of several analyst reports. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $330.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, November 24th. Barclays boosted their price target on Alphabet from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, Mizuho set a $325.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $313.04.

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.