Carl P. Sherr & Co. LLC Decreases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Carl P. Sherr & Co. LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 32.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,940 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 920 shares during the quarter. Carl P. Sherr & Co. LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $322,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 75.0% during the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. LMR Partners LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,000. Denver PWM LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $53,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 14th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.03.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total value of $3,614,175.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,114,885 shares in the company, valued at $339,713,977.55. This represents a 1.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 197,923 shares of company stock valued at $34,244,676. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 5.6 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $185.17 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $129.68 and a 52 week high of $191.75. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $169.70 and a 200 day moving average of $170.21. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $2.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.56, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.