Argent Advisors Inc. Sells 104 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Argent Advisors Inc. lessened its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 104 shares during the period. Argent Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,954,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.1% during the third quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $363,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its position in Alphabet by 6.8% in the 3rd 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. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during 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 buying an additional 337,031 shares during the period. Planning Capital Management Corp boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 20.7% in the 3rd quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 3,145 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $522,000 after buying an additional 540 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Curi RMB Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.6% in the third quarter. Curi RMB Capital LLC now owns 335,698 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $55,676,000 after acquiring an additional 11,722 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on GOOGL. DZ Bank downgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. 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, Wedbush upped their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have issued 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 price target of $210.59.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $154.33 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $179.66 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a market cap of $1.88 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $147.22 and a twelve month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (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 research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.52%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 104,812 shares of company stock valued at $19,336,979 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.