Cypress Capital Group Decreases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Cypress Capital Group lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 41,660 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,434 shares during the period. Cypress Capital Group’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,965,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 9,200.0% during the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth approximately $37,000. HWG Holdings LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. raised its stake in Alphabet by 87.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Slocum Gordon & Co LLP purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $177.33 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $129.40 and a fifty-two week high of $193.31. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $168.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $171.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.52, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 target price for the company. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup increased their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.41, for a total transaction of $1,862,805.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 319,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $56,765,168.06. The trade was a 3.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total value of $3,570,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,137,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,160,251.80. This represents a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 184,295 shares of company stock valued at $30,698,791 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.