Thomas Story & Son LLC Has $7.22 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Thomas Story & Son LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 38,148 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 223 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 3.0% of Thomas Story & Son LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Thomas Story & Son LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,221,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 43,005.6% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,086,250,000 after buying an additional 18,700,111 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,437,957,000 after acquiring an additional 4,662,809 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after acquiring an additional 4,567,275 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $513,024,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after purchasing an additional 2,626,431 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the transaction, the director now owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 116,609 shares of company stock worth $21,809,990 in the last three months. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $217.00 price target (up previously from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. DZ Bank lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Wolfe Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $184.56 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $192.67 and its 200-day moving average is $175.55. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.66 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The company has a market capitalization of $2.25 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

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.