Sage Rhino Capital LLC Lowers Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Sage Rhino Capital LLC lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 9.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 17,793 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,805 shares during the period. Sage Rhino Capital LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,388,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,193,768,000 after buying an additional 5,655,022 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,557,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,247,208,000 after purchasing an additional 259,213 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,573,125,000 after purchasing an additional 3,113,395 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,578,793,000 after purchasing an additional 1,291,274 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after purchasing an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $174.99 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $131.95 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $190.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $177.91. The firm has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 134,316 shares of company stock valued at $25,062,887 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet 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.