eCIO Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

eCIO Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 21.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,142 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 582 shares during the quarter. eCIO Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $380,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. IFS Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 400.0% in the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the period. Robbins Farley grew its holdings in Alphabet by 60.0% during the 2nd quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 58.7% in the 2nd quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Fairman Group LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 121.3% in the second quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $291.74 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.53 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $254.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $207.64. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $292.34.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.12 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,635,348.70. The trade was a 29.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 221,796 shares of company stock worth $53,983,001 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 price target on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $330.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Scotiabank set a $336.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $340.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.81.

About Alphabet

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.