Signet Investment Advisory Group Inc. Has $256,000 Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Signet Investment Advisory Group Inc. lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 9.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,350 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 145 shares during the quarter. Signet Investment Advisory Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $256,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,910,838,000 after purchasing an additional 743,369 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after purchasing an additional 4,567,275 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,268,933,000 after purchasing an additional 1,237,385 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 37,233,079 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,175,106,000 after purchasing an additional 523,416 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $179.66 on Friday. 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 business’s 50 day moving average price is $192.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $175.81. The firm has a market cap of $2.19 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 134,299 shares of company stock worth $25,055,751 over the last quarter. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Ten investment 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, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.62.

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.