Sittner & Nelson LLC Trims Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Sittner & Nelson LLC cut its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,479 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 64 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.4% of Sittner & Nelson LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Sittner & Nelson LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,231,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Alphabet by 70.6% during the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 101,230 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,279,000 after buying an additional 41,880 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 31,171 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,705,000 after acquiring an additional 1,072 shares in the last quarter. Portland Global Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Portland Global Advisors LLC now owns 4,995 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $754,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its holdings in Alphabet by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 6,576,002 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $992,516,000 after purchasing an additional 337,795 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Interchange Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 3.1% in the first quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC now owns 13,104 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,975,000 after purchasing an additional 395 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total value of $3,442,233.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 39,334 shares in the company, valued at $6,307,206.90. This trade represents a 35.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.41, for a total value of $1,862,805.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 319,966 shares in the company, valued at $56,765,168.06. The trade was a 3.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 184,295 shares of company stock valued at $30,698,791 in the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on GOOGL. Mizuho increased their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.90.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $175.98 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $127.90 and a 1-year high of $191.75. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $167.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $170.40. The firm has a market cap of $2.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

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.