M Holdings Securities Inc. Has $5.96 Million Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

M Holdings Securities Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 32.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 35,619 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 17,419 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 1.5% of M Holdings Securities Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest position. M Holdings Securities Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,955,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 360.1% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 20,249 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,083,000 after acquiring an additional 15,848 shares during the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.8% in the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 32,706 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,980,000 after purchasing an additional 1,798 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 27.1% in the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,645 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,621,000 after purchasing an additional 2,269 shares in the last quarter. London & Capital Asset Management Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 14.7% in the first quarter. London & Capital Asset Management Ltd now owns 294,559 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,850,000 after purchasing an additional 37,722 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Talisman Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.8% during the first quarter. Talisman Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,509 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $382,000 after buying an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays raised their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Five 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 data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $166.57 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $129.40 and a 52 week high of $193.31. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $169.10 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $171.87.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. This trade represents a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 319,966 shares in the company, valued at $56,765,168.06. This trade represents a 3.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866 over the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.