Quilter Plc Sells 11,145 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Quilter Plc reduced its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 9.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 104,292 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 11,145 shares during the quarter. Quilter Plc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $19,861,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 42.8% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 6,511 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,089,000 after buying an additional 1,953 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its position in Alphabet by 6.4% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 1,544,297 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $256,177,000 after purchasing an additional 92,556 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,394,181,000 after purchasing an additional 51,226 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.0% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 71,764 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,998,000 after purchasing an additional 2,067 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Indiana Trust & Investment Management Co boosted its position in Alphabet by 7.2% in the third quarter. Indiana Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 7,841 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,311,000 after purchasing an additional 530 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $364,259,266.02. This trade represents a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $187.88 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $208.70. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $193.89 and its 200 day moving average is $176.47. The stock has a market cap of $2.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

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.