Sterneck Capital Management LLC Sells 240 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Sterneck Capital Management LLC cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 17,183 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 240 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 1.8% of Sterneck Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Sterneck Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,253,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. LMR Partners LLP bought a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter worth approximately $32,000. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. Denver PWM LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at $41,000. Quarry LP bought a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $53,000. Finally, Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $66,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Pivotal Research boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $206.82.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.30, for a total value of $3,741,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,106,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $350,361,837.80. This trade represents a 1.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 155,887 shares of company stock worth $27,996,356. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of GOOGL opened at $195.49 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $181.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $172.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.39 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $130.66 and a 12-month high of $201.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

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.