Sunburst Financial Group LLC Decreases Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Sunburst Financial Group LLC trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 8.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,699 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 260 shares during the quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $514,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the period. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 32.3% in the third quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 344 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 84 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank raised their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $186.87 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $131.55 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $194.37 and a 200-day moving average of $176.69.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

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.