Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Cuts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.6% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 311,183 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 21,828 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 0.7% of Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $48,121,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Stratos Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 15.3% during the first quarter. Stratos Investment Management LLC now owns 144,250 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,307,000 after acquiring an additional 19,189 shares during the last quarter. Blackhawk Capital Partners LLC. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 8.4% during the 1st quarter. Blackhawk Capital Partners LLC. now owns 31,244 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,832,000 after purchasing an additional 2,434 shares during the last quarter. May Hill Capital LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. May Hill Capital LLC now owns 7,256 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,122,000 after purchasing an additional 430 shares during the last quarter. Sierra Capital LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Sierra Capital LLC now owns 48,148 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,446,000 after purchasing an additional 1,429 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NTV Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. NTV Asset Management LLC now owns 43,899 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,789,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 261,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,192,275. The trade was a 8.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 215,443 shares of company stock worth $36,298,548 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JMP Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to a “market outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Citizens Jmp raised Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $172.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, June 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.61.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $181.56 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $170.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $173.07. The company has a market capitalization of $2.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

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.