Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Sells 21,592 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 196,682 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 21,592 shares during the quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $34,889,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after buying an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,298,572,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,622,943,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 5,182,111 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Barclays raised their price objective on Alphabet from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $330.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Mizuho set a $325.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Wolfe Research raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.54.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.05, for a total transaction of $694,638.90. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 14,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,629,725.80. This represents a 16.06% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total transaction of $8,129,875.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,369,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $592,760,192.85. The trade was a 1.35% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 228,906 shares of company stock worth $62,127,158 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.2%

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $322.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The firm has a market cap of $3.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.07. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $328.67. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $276.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $225.28.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

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.