Oxbow Advisors LLC Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Oxbow Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 12.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,223 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,205 shares during the quarter. Oxbow Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,557,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cypress Capital LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,602,000. Navellier & Associates Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Navellier & Associates Inc. now owns 9,945 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,883,000 after buying an additional 350 shares during the period. Wealth Management Nebraska bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $329,000. Prentice Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,759 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,279,000 after buying an additional 243 shares during the period. Finally, Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 9,105 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,724,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $172.35 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.10 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.41, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $188.59 and a 200 day moving average of $176.35. 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 twelve month low of $131.61 and a twelve month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. DA Davidson increased their target price on Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.62.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total transaction of $559,856.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,085,531.55. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $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 134,316 shares of company stock worth $25,062,887 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.