Benjamin Edwards Inc. Sells 2,563 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Benjamin Edwards Inc. lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 140,153 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,563 shares during the quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $24,699,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.9% in the 1st quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 88,187 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,637,000 after purchasing an additional 13,371 shares during the period. Alaethes Wealth LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 1.1% in the first quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 7,646 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,182,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the period. Moment Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the 2nd quarter. Moment Partners LLC now owns 5,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,039,000 after acquiring an additional 504 shares during the last quarter. Welch Group LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 64,262 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,325,000 after acquiring an additional 2,467 shares during the period. Finally, Brooktree Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth $352,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on GOOGL. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Hsbc Global Res raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. BNP Paribas started coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Truist Financial set a $350.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.22.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $309.29 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $328.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $283.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $229.18. The firm has a market cap of $3.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.50, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%.The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total value of $7,910,825.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,402,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $584,699,785.79. This trade represents a 1.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the sale, the insider owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 226,128 shares of company stock worth $61,326,372 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Alphabet

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.