Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. Lowers Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 44,811 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 220 shares during the quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,432,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. New Hampshire Trust raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. New Hampshire Trust now owns 43,714 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,963,000 after acquiring an additional 1,132 shares in the last quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 17.0% in the third quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 33,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,598,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 4.5% in the third quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $771,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. abrdn plc raised its stake in Alphabet by 10.7% during the third quarter. abrdn plc now owns 6,305,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,037,196,000 after purchasing an additional 611,233 shares in the last quarter. Finally, StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 0.7% during the third quarter. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. now owns 21,509 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,567,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $206.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JMP Securities raised their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.90.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $174.71 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $169.51 and its 200 day moving average is $170.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.17, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $129.68 and a 52-week high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total value of $3,614,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,114,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,713,977.55. This trade represents a 1.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,802 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.47, for a total value of $2,780,226.94. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,999 shares in the company, valued at $7,280,514.53. This represents a 27.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 163,624 shares of company stock worth $27,803,730. Corporate 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.