Willis Investment Counsel Sells 70,438 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Willis Investment Counsel cut its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 58.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 50,259 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 70,438 shares during the period. Willis Investment Counsel's holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,772,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors 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. PayPay Securities Corp raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 36.1% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Navigoe LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $53,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on GOOGL. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $159.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $178.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.75.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet 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 approximately $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total value of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,613 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,232,544.70. The trade was a 2.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL traded down $1.03 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $174.67. The company had a trading volume of 27,636,835 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,391,108. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $162.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.61. The firm has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.70, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. 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.