American Financial Advisors LLC Has $3.19 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

American Financial Advisors LLC cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 16,844 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,189 shares during the quarter. American Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,189,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Congress Asset Management Co. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 1,101,558 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $208,525,000 after purchasing an additional 76,031 shares during the last quarter. Vivid Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Vivid Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,137 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,244,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares during the period. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $3,589,000. Members Trust Co increased its position in Alphabet by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 3,753 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $710,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the period. Finally, Hickory Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $2,371,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.6 %

GOOGL opened at $168.27 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $191.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $176.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.90, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its 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 return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.94%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $265,914,995.28. The trade was a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 134,188 shares of company stock valued at $25,036,883. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. China Renaissance raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on Alphabet from $232.00 to $229.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.