Berkeley Capital Partners LLC Lowers Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Berkeley Capital Partners LLC cut its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 5,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 116 shares during the quarter. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,127,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,843,149,000 after buying an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 4,715.5% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 8,090 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,353,000 after buying an additional 7,922 shares during the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 24,940 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,170,000 after buying an additional 1,344 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Davis & CO. Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 13.7% in the 3rd quarter. Thompson Davis & CO. Inc. now owns 4,531 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $758,000 after buying an additional 546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $4,519,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $166.28 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $185.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $178.02. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $147.67 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The company has a market capitalization of $2.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.66, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share 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%. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on GOOG shares. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

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.