Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Sold by abrdn plc

abrdn plc cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,549,771 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 450,277 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 2.0% of abrdn plc’s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest position. abrdn plc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,065,528,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 24.0% in the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 18,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,096,000 after purchasing an additional 3,582 shares during the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the third quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 50,806 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,494,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $6,866,000. Private Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC now owns 182,335 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $30,485,000 after buying an additional 12,919 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westwind Capital increased its position in Alphabet by 381.6% in the 3rd quarter. Westwind Capital now owns 119,328 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,950,000 after acquiring an additional 94,550 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GOOG. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.2 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $187.14 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $192.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.15. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market cap of $2.29 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.82, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $131.55 and a 1 year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet 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.