Hilltop National Bank Sells 356 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Hilltop National Bank trimmed its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 9.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,571 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 356 shares during the period. Hilltop National Bank’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $680,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Prudential PLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 15.7% in the second quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 527,604 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $96,773,000 after acquiring an additional 71,452 shares during the period. Financial Futures Ltd Liability Co. raised its position in Alphabet by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. Financial Futures Ltd Liability Co. now owns 7,488 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,373,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC now owns 161,049 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,540,000 after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the period. Roof Eidam Maycock Peralta LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.4% in the second quarter. Roof Eidam Maycock Peralta LLC now owns 26,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,874,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Choreo LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 139.8% during the second quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 202,905 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,425,000 after buying an additional 118,278 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 target price for the company. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of GOOG stock traded down $1.61 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $193.78. 6,529,103 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,565,690. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $202.88. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $183.71 and its 200-day moving average is $174.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market cap of $2.37 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share 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 paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the transaction, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the sale, the director now owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. The trade was 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.