Blume Capital Management Inc. Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Blume Capital Management Inc. lowered its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,690 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 400 shares during the quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,645,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Atala Financial Inc bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,656,000. LBP AM SA raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 985,214 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $186,501,000 after acquiring an additional 31,612 shares in the last quarter. Integras Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $204,000. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 19,560.5% during the fourth quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 689,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $140,751,000 after purchasing an additional 686,379 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $3,048,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $229.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.59.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $170.56 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $181.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $176.86. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $147.22 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The stock has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total value of $284,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at $4,142,195.20. This represents a 6.43 % 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. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.