Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is J. Stern & Co. LLP’s 3rd Largest Position

J. Stern & Co. LLP trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 362,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 23,200 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 6.5% of J. Stern & Co. LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. J. Stern & Co. LLP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $69,080,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.6 %

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $157.97 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $1.93 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.62, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $165.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $177.19. 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 issued its 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 return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total transaction of $3,281,671.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,997,521.61. The trade was a 29.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.38.

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.