Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC Lowers Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 66.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,177 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 20,562 shares during the quarter. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,938,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. LifeWealth Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $895,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $621,000. Infinitum Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $9,522,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $403,000. Finally, Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,349,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $203.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 164,654 shares of company stock worth $26,793,380. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of GOOG stock traded down $0.60 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $173.38. 24,101,777 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,150,700. The business's fifty day moving average is $160.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.47. 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 Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.10 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released 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 $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.