Sentinel Trust Co. LBA Sells 565 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Sentinel Trust Co. LBA trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 8.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,360 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 565 shares during the period. Sentinel Trust Co. LBA’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $984,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth about $28,000. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter worth $39,000. Elite Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $42,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Finally, EQ Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.98, for a total value of $72,792.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,013 shares in the company, valued at $1,094,245.74. The trade was a 6.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,527,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $466,000,536.96. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 215,843 shares of company stock worth $37,288,490 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $185.06 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.25 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.63, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of $172.90 and a 200 day moving average of $173.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on GOOGL. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. DA Davidson reduced their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp raised their price target on Alphabet from $195.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wedbush set a $190.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $201.68.

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.