First Dallas Securities Inc. Sells 3,820 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

First Dallas Securities Inc. lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 52.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,460 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 3,820 shares during the period. First Dallas Securities Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $578,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9,200.0% in the second quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the period. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $177.10 on Tuesday. 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 business’s 50 day simple moving average is $171.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $171.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.02. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $131.06 and a one year high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total transaction of $3,614,175.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,114,885 shares in the company, valued at $339,713,977.55. The trade was a 1.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 160,789 shares of company stock worth $27,374,143 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on GOOG. Pivotal Research boosted their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

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.