Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. Sells 32,757 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,460,992 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 32,757 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 3.8% of Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P.’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $244,263,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. M&G PLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,240,000. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.3% during the second quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $390,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 301,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,488,000 after purchasing an additional 4,292 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.2% during the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 63,545 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,624,000 after purchasing an additional 5,892 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% during the second quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 11,366 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,097,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were 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 $4,421,948.46. The trade was a 8.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $170.82 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $169.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $171.85. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $129.40 and a 1 year high of $193.31. The stock has a market cap of $2.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. 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.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

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.