Hourglass Capital LLC Sells 2,000 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Hourglass Capital LLC trimmed its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 54.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,650 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 2,000 shares during the quarter. Hourglass Capital LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $314,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Finally, Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 33.0% in the 4th quarter. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 266 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective 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. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock traded down $4.49 on Friday, hitting $182.15. The company's stock had a trading volume of 11,208,700 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,409,787. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock's 50 day moving average is $194.22 and its 200-day moving average is $177.08. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The company has a market capitalization of $2.22 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.64, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS 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%. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares of the company's stock, valued at $50,376,238.74. This trade represents a 9.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 116,609 shares of company stock worth $21,809,990. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

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.