Ballast Advisors LLC Sells 535 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ballast Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 8,532 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 535 shares during the quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,202,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Buck Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total transaction of $3,541,725.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,303,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $362,516,961.51. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Alphabet news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares in the company, valued at approximately $243,854,485.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total transaction of $3,541,725.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,516,961.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on GOOG. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $159.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $156.88 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $103.27 and a one year high of $161.70. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $147.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $141.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.95 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $85.28 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.05 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 EPS for the current year.

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.