Essex Financial Services Inc. Sells 81 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Essex Financial Services Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 111,454 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 81 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 1.5% of Essex Financial Services Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $21,098,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. Brady Family Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Brady Family Wealth LLC now owns 68,597 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,377,000 after purchasing an additional 1,048 shares during the period. Lynch & Associates IN boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Lynch & Associates IN now owns 30,534 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,064,000 after purchasing an additional 508 shares during the period. ERn Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. ERn Financial LLC now owns 17,274 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,865,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares during the period. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda now owns 9,203 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,526,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the period. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC now owns 6,399 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,061,000 after purchasing an additional 444 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Robert W. Baird restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 134,299 shares of company stock valued at $25,055,751 over the last ninety days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.7 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $179.66 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $192.46 and its 200-day moving average is $175.69. 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 firm has a market cap of $2.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

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.