Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Sold by Canton Hathaway LLC

Canton Hathaway LLC cut its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 12.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 6,311 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 870 shares during the quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,195,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 10.1% during the third quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $363,000 after buying an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 2.1% during the third quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC now owns 26,242 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,352,000 after buying an additional 543 shares in the last quarter. True Link Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 28.4% during the third quarter. True Link Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,555 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $258,000 after buying an additional 344 shares in the last quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 2.2% during the third quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 164,772 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,327,000 after buying an additional 3,522 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PBMares Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 2.9% during the third quarter. PBMares Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $851,000 after buying an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Trading Down 4.6 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $165.87 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $136.13 and a one year high of $207.05. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $187.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.56. The stock has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 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, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on GOOGL. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Wolfe Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.62.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.22, for a total value of $291,330.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 23,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,529,987.28. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 97,182 shares of company stock valued at $18,192,354 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Alphabet

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.