Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC Reduces Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC trimmed its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 957,483 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 19,791 shares during the quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $181,252,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 518.8% during the fourth quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 166 shares during the period. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 36.1% during the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on GOOGL. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Westpark Capital reissued a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.1%

NASDAQ:GOOGL traded up $3.56 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $172.03. The company had a trading volume of 18,916,559 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,708,248. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.09 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.37, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $158.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.76. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 transaction of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 164,654 shares of company stock worth $26,793,380. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Company 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.