Aigen Investment Management LP Trims Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Aigen Investment Management LP reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 56.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 3,714 shares during the quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $534,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 27.1% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 37,288 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,059,000 after acquiring an additional 7,953 shares in the last quarter. SPC Financial Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 10.3% during the fourth quarter. SPC Financial Inc. now owns 14,697 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,782,000 after acquiring an additional 1,374 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in Alphabet by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 1,122,899 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $212,565,000 after acquiring an additional 7,568 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 2,300,198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $435,428,000 after acquiring an additional 72,172 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co raised its position in Alphabet by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 43,309 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,214,000 after acquiring an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. DA Davidson boosted 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. KeyCorp cut their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.03.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $5,374,012.74. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. This trade represents a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $160.67 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.08 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $184.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.56.

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, 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%. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 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.