Geometric Wealth Advisors Sells 4,220 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Geometric Wealth Advisors cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 72.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,579 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 4,220 shares during the quarter. Geometric Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $244,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 242.9% in the 1st quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. IMA Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 85.7% in the 1st quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $39,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $201.96 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $182.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $173.22. The company has a market cap of $2.44 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.51, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. The business had revenue of $96,428,000 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.60 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Wedbush boosted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. BNP Paribas cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $217.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $2,786,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 240,400 shares in the company, valued at $44,656,704. This represents a 5.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.23, for a total value of $6,377,475.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,494,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $489,572,657.16. This represents a 1.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 274,219 shares of company stock valued at $49,674,273 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

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.