Whittier Trust Co. Has $49.18 Million Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Whittier Trust Co. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 259,777 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,682 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $49,176,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. BluePointe Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 54.0% during the 4th quarter. BluePointe Capital Management LLC now owns 5,783 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,095,000 after acquiring an additional 2,027 shares in the last quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. grew its position in Alphabet by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. now owns 171,889 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $32,538,000 after purchasing an additional 4,964 shares in the last quarter. Condor Capital Management increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Condor Capital Management now owns 95,949 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,163,000 after buying an additional 495 shares during the last quarter. Symmetry Partners LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 37.2% during the 4th quarter. Symmetry Partners LLC now owns 4,846 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $917,000 after buying an additional 1,315 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maestria Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $13,156,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GOOGL. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Wedbush boosted their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.49.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 87,992 shares of company stock worth $16,093,773. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $154.64 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $147.22 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The business’s fifty day moving average is $178.83 and its 200-day moving average is $177.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market cap of $1.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

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.