Patten Group Inc. Cuts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Patten Group Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 10.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 19,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,245 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 0.8% of Patten Group Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Patten Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,766,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,712 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,164,000 after purchasing an additional 623 shares during the last quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors now owns 5,307 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,005,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 38,451,718 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,278,910,000 after acquiring an additional 1,218,639 shares during the period. NBW Capital LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. NBW Capital LLC now owns 117,533 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,249,000 after acquiring an additional 3,136 shares during the period. Finally, Bedel Financial Consulting Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Bedel Financial Consulting Inc. now owns 20,574 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,937,000 after acquiring an additional 232 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of GOOGL opened at $164.29 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.08 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $185.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $176.58. The firm has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total value of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. This trade represents a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. DZ Bank cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Company 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.