White Pine Capital LLC Decreases Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

White Pine Capital LLC reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 26,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,634 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 1.4% of White Pine Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest position. White Pine Capital LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,727,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Meritage Group LP grew its stake in Alphabet by 1,061.5% in the 3rd quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 302 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 165.8% in the third quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 319 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Armor Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 31.0% in the fourth quarter. Armor Investment Advisors LLC now owns 338 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. IAG Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 55.9% during the 4th quarter. IAG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 343 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $55,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.80, for a total transaction of $3,753,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,280,511 shares in the company, valued at $380,389,234.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.80, for a total transaction of $3,753,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,280,511 shares in the company, valued at $380,389,234.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.73, for a total value of $119,784.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,164 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,072,665.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 275,129 shares of company stock worth $40,382,765. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on GOOGL. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Alphabet from $141.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Alphabet from $168.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $190.60.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $167.24 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.15. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $103.97 and a one year high of $174.71. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $150.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $142.32. The stock has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $66.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th.

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.