Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Sells 6,420 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. decreased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 11.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 47,653 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 6,420 shares during the quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $9,021,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 20,990.0% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,186,748 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,171,151,000 after acquiring an additional 6,157,413 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after purchasing an additional 4,567,275 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $513,024,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,626,431 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 26.9% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 10,064,598 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,669,300,000 after purchasing an additional 2,136,128 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus upped 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. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Ten 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.62.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the transaction, the director now owns 272,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % 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, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total value of $262,040.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.7 %

Alphabet stock opened at $164.29 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $185.05 and a two-hundred day moving average of $176.58. 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 $146.08 and a one year high of $207.05. The stock has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.41, 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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

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.