Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Stock Position Cut by King Luther Capital Management Corp

King Luther Capital Management Corp cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,461,677 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 63,725 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.9% of King Luther Capital Management Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest position. King Luther Capital Management Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $436,677,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $23,963,208,000 after acquiring an additional 135,064,454 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at about $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. 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 worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter worth approximately $369,713,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 954 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.33, for a total transaction of $269,342.82. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 14,517 shares in the company, valued at $4,098,584.61. This trade represents a 6.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.48, for a total transaction of $9,213,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,337,119 shares in the company, valued at $662,526,494.12. This trade represents a 1.37% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 222,396 shares of company stock worth $54,105,275. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on GOOG shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. HSBC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $335.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Mizuho set a $325.00 target price on Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Alphabet from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research upped their price target on Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.81.

Alphabet Trading Up 3.9%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $290.59 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $291.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The company has a market capitalization of $3.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a fifty day moving average of $253.35 and a 200 day moving average of $206.74.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.12 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid 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 dividend payout ratio 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.