WealthTrust Axiom LLC Cuts Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

WealthTrust Axiom LLC lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,245 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 75 shares during the period. WealthTrust Axiom LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $453,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Meritage Group LP raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1,061.5% during the 3rd quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 302 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,000 after buying 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 increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 31.0% during the 4th quarter. Armor Investment Advisors LLC now owns 338 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. IAG Wealth Partners LLC raised its position 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $55,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup raised their price target on Alphabet from $168.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $190.60.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $171.25 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $151.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $142.83. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $105.16 and a twelve month high of $174.71. The stock has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $66.04 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.17 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 1,777,106 shares in the company, valued at approximately $243,854,485.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.08, for a total transaction of $3,219,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,355,191 shares in the company, valued at approximately $336,980,728.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total transaction of $6,597,125.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $243,854,485.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 252,629 shares of company stock worth $37,091,240 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.88% 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.