Kennedy Capital Management LLC Sells 9,269 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Kennedy Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 11.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 72,767 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 9,269 shares during the quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $13,858,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,094,000 after acquiring an additional 1,041 shares during the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $281,000. Requisite Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $927,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,184,399 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,384,039,000 after buying an additional 704,875 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oriental Harbor Investment Fund bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $80,656,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG traded up $1.59 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $160.99. The company had a trading volume of 8,713,485 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,379,557. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $208.70. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $170.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $177.99. The company has a market capitalization of $1.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS 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%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current 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 issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on GOOG. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark restated a "negative" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $208.71.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,834 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,468,029.04. The trade was a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 118,297 shares of company stock valued at $20,804,770. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Alphabet

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.