Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Sold by SlateStone Wealth LLC

SlateStone Wealth LLC lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 24.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 116,554 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 37,788 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 2.2% of SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $22,064,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.1% in the third quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $363,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its stake in Alphabet by 6.8% during the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 728,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $120,834,000 after purchasing an additional 46,677 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,871,384,000 after purchasing an additional 337,031 shares during the last quarter. Saturna Capital Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 1,430,995 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $237,331,000 after buying an additional 4,003 shares during the period. Finally, Arjuna Capital increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 102,574 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,012,000 after buying an additional 706 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research reports. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $208.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.59.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.7 %

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $162.24 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.98 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $147.22 and a one year high of $207.05. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $180.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were paid 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 yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total value of $262,040.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 104,812 shares of company stock valued at $19,336,979 over the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet 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.