Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC Reduces Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 39,830 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,606 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.7% of Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,835,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9,200.0% during the second quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. HWG Holdings LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOG. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $195.39 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $202.88. The company has a market cap of $2.39 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $183.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.52.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 155,887 shares of company stock valued at $27,996,356 over the last ninety days. 12.99% 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.