Accel Wealth Management Trims Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Accel Wealth Management cut its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 11.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,940 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,271 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.3% of Accel Wealth Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Accel Wealth Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,396,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,910,838,000 after buying an additional 743,369 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after buying an additional 4,567,275 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,268,933,000 after acquiring an additional 1,237,385 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 37,233,079 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,175,106,000 after acquiring an additional 523,416 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the company. Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $550,702.88. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares in the company, valued at $3,468,029.04. The trade was a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 121,630 shares of company stock valued at $22,258,133 in the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $200.87 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.64, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.98. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week high of $202.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company has a fifty day moving average of $187.53 and a 200 day moving average of $173.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.