Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Clarius Group LLC

Clarius Group LLC decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 23.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 51,143 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 16,023 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 0.7% of Clarius Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $12,433,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,826,000 after buying an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. United Bank grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 45,084 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,972,000 after acquiring an additional 910 shares during the last quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 32.2% during the 1st quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 1,932,813 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $298,890,000 after acquiring an additional 470,367 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Full Sail Capital LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 3.3% during the first quarter. Full Sail Capital LLC now owns 11,974 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,852,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Melius Research raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Alphabet from $260.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $350.00 price objective (up previously from $320.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $315.90.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.66, for a total value of $32,401.32. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,750,916.64. The trade was a 0.56% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $308.19, for a total transaction of $184,914.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,206,872.04. This represents a 13.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 226,128 shares of company stock worth $63,183,331 in the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $314.06 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $328.83. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $294.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $237.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.79 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.28%.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.