Willis Johnson & Associates Inc. Sells 1,559 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Willis Johnson & Associates Inc. lowered its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 29.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,662 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,559 shares during the period. Willis Johnson & Associates Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $693,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Alphabet by 518.8% during the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 36.1% in the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,374 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total transaction of $238,347.78. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 129,744 shares of company stock worth $20,968,366 over the last three months. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective 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. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten 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 data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $166.54 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.69, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $158.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $175.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05.

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 (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 analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

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