Community Financial Services Group LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Community Financial Services Group LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 8.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,325 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 411 shares during the period. Community Financial Services Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $819,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 43,005.6% in 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 during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 116.4% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,437,957,000 after buying an additional 4,662,809 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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 valued at $10,559,240,000 after buying an additional 4,567,275 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $513,024,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,626,431 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GOOGL. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, China Renaissance upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Ten investment 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $179.66 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.66 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $192.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $175.81. The stock has a market cap of $2.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares in the company, valued at $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,007,191.15. This trade represents a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 134,299 shares of company stock worth $25,055,751 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.