Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Decreases Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 4.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 231,735 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 11,845 shares during the quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL's holdings in Alphabet were worth $44,132,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of several recent research reports. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $210.88.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Alphabet stock traded down $2.14 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $153.36. The stock had a trading volume of 19,461,666 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,435,374. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $167.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $177.47. The firm has a market cap of $1.87 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $208.70.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares of the company's stock, valued at $265,914,995.28. The trade was a 1.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647. Company 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.