Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Sold by Avity Investment Management Inc.

Avity Investment Management Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 11.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 71,629 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 9,619 shares during the period. Avity Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $13,559,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Moseley Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. Moseley Investment Management Inc. now owns 45,432 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,600,000 after purchasing an additional 5,718 shares in the last quarter. Cox Capital Mgt LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Cox Capital Mgt LLC now owns 37,374 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,075,000 after buying an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. First Community Trust NA lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. First Community Trust NA now owns 20,167 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,818,000 after acquiring an additional 451 shares during the period. Clarus Wealth Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Clarus Wealth Advisors now owns 4,460 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $852,000 after acquiring an additional 224 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meridian Financial Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Meridian Financial Partners LLC now owns 15,226 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,882,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $210.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research upped their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.15.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $192.91 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.58, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $183.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $173.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.66 and a 52 week high of $201.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total value of $234,331.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at $4,516,745.58. The trade was a 4.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654 over the last quarter. 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.