Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC Cuts Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 66.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 180 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 359 shares during the quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $34,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GOOGL. LMR Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Denver PWM LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at $41,000. Quarry LP bought a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at $53,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth $66,000. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total transaction of $3,990,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,084,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $369,672,512.16. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $196.00 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.40 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a fifty day moving average of $184.08 and a 200-day moving average of $173.33. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $130.66 and a 52-week high of $201.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, China Renaissance upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.15.

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.