Tufton Capital Management Sells 335 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Tufton Capital Management lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 24,265 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 335 shares during the period. Tufton Capital Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,390,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Aire Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Aire Advisors LLC now owns 11,772 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,645,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Defined Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Defined Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,531 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $354,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. WealthCare Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. WealthCare Investment Partners LLC now owns 3,473 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $482,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Peoples Financial Services CORP. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Peoples Financial Services CORP. now owns 16,690 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,331,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RAM Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. RAM Investment Partners LLC now owns 7,550 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,055,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 price objective (up from $178.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Mizuho increased their price objective on Alphabet from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Roth Mkm dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $158.71.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $156.00 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $102.63 and a 12-month high of $160.22. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $147.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $141.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.05 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total transaction of $3,541,725.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,303,011 shares in the company, valued at $362,516,961.51. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total transaction of $3,541,725.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,303,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $362,516,961.51. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.