L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP Cuts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP decreased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 111,943 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 360 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 2.5% of L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $21,191,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Peoples Financial Services CORP. grew its position in Alphabet by 1.3% in the third quarter. Peoples Financial Services CORP. now owns 14,939 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,478,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. grew its position in Alphabet by 2.9% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 190,810 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,646,000 after acquiring an additional 5,306 shares in the last quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 1.1% in the third quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 80,123 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,288,000 after acquiring an additional 856 shares in the last quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 13.0% in the third quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. now owns 2,213 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $367,000 after acquiring an additional 254 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Leisure Capital Management grew its position in Alphabet by 1.1% in the third quarter. Leisure Capital Management now owns 17,160 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,846,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on GOOGL. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Roth Mkm raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.62.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $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 SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 134,299 shares of company stock valued at $25,055,751 over the last ninety days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $179.66 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $192.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $175.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $130.66 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

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.