Yacktman Asset Management LP Reduces Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Yacktman Asset Management LP trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 39.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,129,249 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,401,206 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 3.7% of Yacktman Asset Management LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Yacktman Asset Management LP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $355,989,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,985 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,465,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,880 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $345,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.6% in the second quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 3,636 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $667,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.0% in the second quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 2,944 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $540,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 11.1% during the first quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC now owns 600 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total value of $1,898,190.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 330,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,741,643.48. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 209,552 shares of company stock valued at $34,433,848 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on GOOG. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Barclays raised their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.4 %

GOOG stock opened at $171.41 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $129.40 and a one year high of $193.31. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $163.97 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $170.83.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.