Clarity Financial LLC Sells 1,540 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Clarity Financial LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 27.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,138 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,540 shares during the period. Clarity Financial LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $783,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 43,005.6% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,086,250,000 after buying an additional 18,700,111 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 587.4% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,772,991,000 after buying an additional 9,135,056 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,437,957,000 after purchasing an additional 4,662,809 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after buying an additional 4,567,275 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 115.4% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 6,939,456 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,264,022,000 after acquiring an additional 3,718,420 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 3.3 %

Shares of GOOGL opened at $185.34 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.58, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.66 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $191.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its 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 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $208.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research raised their price target 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. Citizens Jmp lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Scotiabank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.62.

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.