Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Sold by Symphony Financial Services Inc.

Symphony Financial Services Inc. cut its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 16.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,450 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 290 shares during the period. Symphony Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $275,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $363,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 728,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $120,834,000 after purchasing an additional 46,677 shares during the period. Heritage Investors Management Corp boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.5% during the third quarter. Heritage Investors Management Corp now owns 420,235 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $69,695,000 after buying an additional 2,101 shares in the last quarter. Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 13.2% during the third quarter. Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 28,263 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,687,000 after buying an additional 3,300 shares during the period. Finally, Crestwood Advisors Group LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 3.3% during the third quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 760,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $126,073,000 after buying an additional 24,147 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total value of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total value of $262,040.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $160.67 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $184.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $176.56. The firm has a market cap of $1.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.96, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. 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 1 year low of $146.08 and a 1 year high of $207.05.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on GOOGL shares. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $229.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.03.

Alphabet 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.