Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. Sells 244 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. lowered its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 44,567 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 244 shares during the period. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $8,436,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. LMR Partners LLP acquired a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $32,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 518.8% in the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 166 shares during the period. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Denver PWM LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $66,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $183.61 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $192.18 and its 200 day moving average is $174.89. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $130.66 and a one year high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.81, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.91 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

About Alphabet

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.