Long Road Investment Counsel LLC Cuts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Long Road Investment Counsel LLC decreased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 48,440 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 400 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 3.7% of Long Road Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Long Road Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $9,170,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. State Street Corp grew its position in Alphabet by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,910,838,000 after buying an additional 743,369 shares in the last quarter. 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 valued at $22,154,651,000 after acquiring an additional 2,626,431 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after acquiring an additional 4,567,275 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 50,615,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,581,427,000 after purchasing an additional 757,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 38,451,718 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,278,910,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218,639 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the subject of several research reports. Wedbush raised their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.59.

Alphabet Stock Down 4.9 %

GOOGL opened at $154.33 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.88 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.17, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $179.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.92. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $147.22 and a twelve month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50 % 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, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 104,812 shares of company stock valued at $19,336,979. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.