Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC Sells 441 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC decreased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 55.1% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 360 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 441 shares during the period. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $60,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOG. Boston Partners increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 21.2% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 32,381 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,930,000 after acquiring an additional 5,662 shares in the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $670,000. Bank & Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $319,000. City State Bank boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. City State Bank now owns 13,787 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,529,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quent Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 32,794 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,015,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $170.49 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $129.40 and a 12 month high of $193.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $169.98 and its 200 day moving average is $171.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total value of $3,570,300.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,137,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,160,251.80. The trade was a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. This trade represents a 8.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on GOOG. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

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.