Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Sold by Ashburton Jersey Ltd

Ashburton Jersey Ltd cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 52.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 60,119 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 66,072 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 5.1% of Ashburton Jersey Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Ashburton Jersey Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $11,449,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Westpark Capital began coverage on Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $210.00 price objective for the company. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $208.65.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.2 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $147.74 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $1.80 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.35, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $147.54 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $177.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $178.43.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 119,797 shares of company stock worth $21,089,470 over the last ninety days. Corporate 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.