Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC Lowers Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC reduced its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 957,483 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 19,791 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $181,252,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $24,383,677,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 20,990.0% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,186,748 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,171,151,000 after acquiring an additional 6,157,413 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in Alphabet by 18.7% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 29,866,698 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,792,317,000 after acquiring an additional 4,694,621 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Alphabet by 7.7% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $629,008,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on GOOGL. Citizens Jmp cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Westpark Capital raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Ten equities research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $146.75 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $174.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.82. The stock has a market cap of $1.79 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,142,195.20. This represents a 6.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total value of $3,281,671.90. Following the sale, the insider now owns 43,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,997,521.61. This represents a 29.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 119,797 shares of company stock valued at $21,089,470 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.