Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Position Cut by Beech Hill Advisors Inc.

Beech Hill Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 24.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 32,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 10,468 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 3.7% of Beech Hill Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. Beech Hill Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,944,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,826,000 after acquiring an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. United Bank boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.1% during 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 period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 32.2% in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Aristides Capital LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 25.1% in the first quarter. Aristides Capital LLC now owns 68,680 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,621,000 after purchasing an additional 13,800 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Melius Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Alphabet from $260.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Arete Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $300.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $315.90.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 8,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,798,832.60. The trade was a 23.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.66, for a total transaction of $32,401.32. Following the sale, 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 226,128 shares of company stock valued at $63,183,331 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $313.51 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $328.83. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $295.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $238.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.78 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

About Alphabet

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.