Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Sold by Brown Shipley& Co Ltd

Brown Shipley& Co Ltd lowered its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 49,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,298 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 4.6% of Brown Shipley& Co Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Brown Shipley& Co Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $9,304,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 518.8% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 36.1% in the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group set a $195.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 129,744 shares of company stock worth $20,968,366. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $168.56 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.05 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $158.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.88. 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 twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

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.