Monument Group Wealth Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Monument Group Wealth Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 9.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,839 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 197 shares during the period. Monument Group Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $350,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Beck Bode LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Beck Bode LLC now owns 67,523 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,385,000 after acquiring an additional 4,456 shares during the last quarter. Merriman Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 21.3% in the second quarter. Merriman Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,524 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,847,000 after purchasing an additional 2,722 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 11.1% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 1,144,221 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $209,873,000 after purchasing an additional 113,916 shares during the last quarter. Circle Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 14.9% in the 2nd quarter. Circle Wealth Management LLC now owns 71,983 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,203,000 after buying an additional 9,314 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 153,311 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,120,000 after buying an additional 11,998 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $197.55 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $185.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.85. The stock has a market cap of $2.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $131.55 and a twelve month high of $202.88.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total transaction of $3,990,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,084,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $369,672,512.16. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.