Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Sold by Stegent Equity Advisors Inc.

Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 27.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,788 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,567 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.3% of Stegent Equity Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest position. Stegent Equity Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,285,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after acquiring an additional 4,567,275 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,268,933,000 after acquiring an additional 1,237,385 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 37,233,079 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,175,106,000 after acquiring an additional 523,416 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOGL. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total transaction of $238,347.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,606,213.28. The trade was a 8.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 97,182 shares of company stock valued at $18,192,354 in the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $164.04 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.03 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business’s 50 day moving average is $187.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.55. The company has a market capitalization of $2.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.