Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by AQR Capital Management LLC

AQR Capital Management LLC cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.9% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,108,391 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 195,359 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 0.5% of AQR Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. AQR Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $551,397,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $73,927,821,000 after purchasing an additional 5,182,111 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $33,511,477,000 after acquiring an additional 2,428,266 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after acquiring an additional 135,064,454 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.4% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 107,760,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,022,926,000 after acquiring an additional 441,177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 6.4% in the second quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 35,357,943 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,272,146,000 after purchasing an additional 2,117,990 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $330.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 1st. HSBC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $335.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $330.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $313.04.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total value of $8,129,875.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,369,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $592,760,192.85. The trade was a 1.35% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.05, for a total transaction of $694,638.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 14,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,629,725.80. The trade was a 16.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 228,906 shares of company stock valued at $62,127,158 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock opened at $310.52 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $283.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $229.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The stock has a market cap of $3.75 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.62, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.07. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $328.67.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.28%.

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.