Concorde Asset Management LLC Sells 1,616 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Concorde Asset Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 38.6% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,570 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,616 shares during the period. Concorde Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $739,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. EMC Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $52,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co raised its holdings in Alphabet by 142.9% during the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud revenue reportedly increased 82% in the second quarter, with backlog reaching $514 billion, while the Gemini app reached approximately 950 million monthly active users. The results reinforce the commercial demand supporting Alphabet’s AI and cloud investments. Google’s AI business is booming, so why are DeepMind’s biggest names quitting?
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors continue to highlight Alphabet’s strong cash generation, balance sheet and valuation relative to its growth prospects. Some market models see the shares reaching $400 as Cloud momentum and AI monetization continue. Price Prediction: Google Will Hit $400 on This Date
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s expanded Google Cloud partnership with AI lab Mirendil, reportedly worth more than $100 million over multiple years, provides another example of demand for its computing infrastructure. Mirendil Google Cloud deal

Alphabet Trading Down 1.0%

Alphabet stock opened at $354.30 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $355.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $340.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.33 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.80, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a current ratio of 2.72. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $196.60 and a 52 week high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%.The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.07 billion. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Zacks Research raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $445.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $390.00 target price (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $419.86.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total value of $3,142,911.42. Following the sale, the insider owned 75,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. This represents a 10.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $3,832,277.26. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 600,547 shares of company stock valued at $16,255,540. 11.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.