Hill Island Financial LLC Decreases Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Hill Island Financial LLC cut its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 20.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,706 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,959 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 0.5% of Hill Island Financial LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Hill Island Financial LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,414,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,355,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470,042 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 19.7% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after buying an additional 13,876,534 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 2.2% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,963,128,000 after acquiring an additional 979,083 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,414,179,000 after acquiring an additional 684,968 shares during the period. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 28,558,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,024,679,000 after acquiring an additional 813,428 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. Rosenblatt Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $160.28 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $121.46 and a 52-week high of $193.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.58, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $167.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $166.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.40, for a total transaction of $3,991,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,213,011 shares in the company, valued at $392,588,151.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.40, for a total value of $3,991,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,213,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $392,588,151.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 202,667 shares of company stock worth $34,341,581. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.