Welch & Forbes LLC Sells 9,139 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Welch & Forbes LLC trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 440,006 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 9,139 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.1% of Welch & Forbes LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $83,293,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 20,990.0% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,186,748 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,171,151,000 after purchasing an additional 6,157,413 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% in the third 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 during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth $513,024,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after acquiring an additional 2,626,431 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 26.9% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 10,064,598 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,669,300,000 after acquiring an additional 2,136,128 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.0 %

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $163.89 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.00 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.36, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.74 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The business’s 50-day moving average is $183.75 and its 200 day moving average is $176.47.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total transaction of $262,040.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,961,445.55. The trade was a 6.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274 over the last ninety days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.59.

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.