Columbia Asset Management Sells 6,534 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Columbia Asset Management reduced its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 82,801 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 6,534 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 2.9% of Columbia Asset Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Columbia Asset Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,674,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,871,384,000 after buying an additional 337,031 shares during the period. First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the third quarter. First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA now owns 31,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,291,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares in the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 222.5% in the third quarter. FORA Capital LLC now owns 22,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,732,000 after purchasing an additional 15,523 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 4,385,621 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $727,355,000 after purchasing an additional 364,348 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management LLP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $17,523,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Westpark Capital upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Wedbush raised their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $207.97.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $158.71 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.93 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $170.47 and a 200 day moving average of $176.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total transaction of $284,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 21,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,142,195.20. The trade was a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $550,702.88. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,468,029.04. This trade represents a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 119,797 shares of company stock valued at $21,089,470 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company 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.