Simplicity Wealth LLC Has $3.11 Million Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Simplicity Wealth LLC lessened its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 35.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,333 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 8,961 shares during the quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,110,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Finally, FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 287.9% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 225 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares in the company, valued at $265,914,995.28. This trade represents a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 134,316 shares of company stock worth $25,062,887 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $175.75 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $134.80 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $189.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $178.07. The firm has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.83, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

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.