Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Reduces Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC decreased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 10.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 42,169 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 5,077 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,588,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% in the 1st quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $45,844,050. This trade represents a 3.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 183,343 shares of company stock valued at $31,296,140. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Tigress Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.40.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.4%

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $183.77 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The company has a market capitalization of $2.23 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $172.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $174.80.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.