Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Sold by Patton Fund Management Inc.

Patton Fund Management Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 16.3% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 34,152 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 6,645 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.3% of Patton Fund Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Patton Fund Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,221,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Tributary Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter worth about $30,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. grew its position in Alphabet by 59.2% during the first quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 293 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 109 shares during the period. Finally, Richardson Capital Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 87.5% during the first quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 300 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Argus upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $196.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $176.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Finally, TD Securities increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.74.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $162.96 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $175.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $162.35. The firm has a market cap of $2.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.99, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $120.21 and a twelve month high of $191.75. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.58, for a total transaction of $3,973,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,235,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $394,746,532.38. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.58, for a total transaction of $3,973,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,235,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $394,746,532.38. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,655.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 133,365 shares of company stock valued at $22,936,043. Corporate insiders own 11.55% 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.