Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Sold by Advisory Alpha LLC

Advisory Alpha LLC lowered its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 37.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 11,894 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 7,141 shares during the period. Advisory Alpha LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,839,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target 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. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, DZ Bank cut shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of GOOGL traded down $1.29 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $167.74. The stock had a trading volume of 24,776,768 shares, compared to its average volume of 35,670,070. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $159.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $174.53. The company has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.84, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total transaction of $5,066,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. This trade represents a 1.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 163,270 shares of company stock worth $26,553,563 in the last ninety days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.