Maestria Partners LLC Sells 9,025 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Maestria Partners LLC cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 18.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 39,975 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 9,025 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 2.5% of Maestria Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Maestria Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,091,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. ACT Advisors LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. ACT Advisors LLC. now owns 1,625 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $288,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. LongView Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. LongView Wealth Management now owns 5,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $909,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Kooman & Associates boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kooman & Associates now owns 4,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $732,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,742 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $309,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brueske Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,194 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $389,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. UBS Group set a $255.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $241.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total value of $7,910,825.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,402,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $584,699,785.79. This represents a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. The trade was a 29.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 244,438 shares of company stock worth $53,216,085. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $251.71 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $230.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $191.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $256.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.81, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

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.