Ameriprise Financial Inc. Cuts Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Ameriprise Financial Inc. lowered its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 35,816,418 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 85,568 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.7% of Ameriprise Financial Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest position. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned 0.29% of Alphabet worth $6,771,925,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Bennett Selby Investments LP raised its position in Alphabet by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP now owns 1,354 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $256,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 1,293 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $245,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,845 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,864,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 2,381 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $457,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 7,527 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,425,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,824 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,815,948.32. This trade represents a 15.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total value of $5,075,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,685,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $419,320,207.36. This represents a 1.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 146,824 shares of company stock valued at $25,086,603. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL traded up $0.18 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $164.21. The company had a trading volume of 21,320,782 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,166,316. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $160.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $175.50. The company has a market capitalization of $1.99 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 yield of 0.51%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Westpark Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. DZ Bank downgraded Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group set a $195.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $199.46.

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.