Cottage Street Advisors LLC Trims Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Cottage Street Advisors LLC trimmed its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 18,447 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 229 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 1.8% of Cottage Street Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Cottage Street Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,492,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,910,838,000 after buying an additional 743,369 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,154,651,000 after purchasing an additional 2,626,431 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Alphabet by 7.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after purchasing an additional 4,567,275 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 50,615,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,581,427,000 after purchasing an additional 757,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 38,451,718 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,278,910,000 after buying an additional 1,218,639 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total value of $284,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at $4,142,195.20. This represents a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $550,702.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,468,029.04. This represents a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 119,797 shares of company stock worth $21,089,470. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $208.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Westpark Capital upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, UBS Group set a $190.00 price target on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $145.60 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $175.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $176.81. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $145.38 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The company has a market cap of $1.77 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.09, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly 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 net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 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.