Violich Capital Management Inc. Acquires 1,395 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Violich Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 334,510 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,395 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 8.2% of Violich Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Violich Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $63,323,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Schear Investment Advisers LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the third quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 33,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,598,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 27.9% in the third quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,192,000 after purchasing an additional 5,516 shares during the period. abrdn plc increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.7% in 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 during the period. Olistico Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Olistico Wealth LLC now owns 8,981 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,700,000 after purchasing an additional 746 shares during the period. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 22.9% in the third quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 61,540 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,206,000 after purchasing an additional 11,481 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $217.00 price target (up previously from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Loop Capital raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $229.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.62.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.7 %

Alphabet stock opened at $179.66 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $192.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.69. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.66 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total value of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 272,466 shares in the company, valued at $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares in the company, valued at $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 134,299 shares of company stock worth $25,055,751 in the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.