Kerrisdale Advisers LLC Cuts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Kerrisdale Advisers LLC trimmed its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 79,282 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 2,010 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 5.1% of Kerrisdale Advisers LLC's holdings, making the stock its 5th largest position. Kerrisdale Advisers LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,008,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bennett Selby Investments LP grew its position in Alphabet by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP now owns 1,354 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $256,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the period. Macroview Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 1,293 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $245,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,845 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,864,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 2,381 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $457,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 7,527 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,425,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647. Insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of several research reports. Citizens Jmp lowered Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday. Wolfe Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.03.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL traded up $2.68 on Friday, reaching $161.96. The stock had a trading volume of 55,957,898 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,435,966. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The stock has a market cap of $1.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. 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 company has a 50-day moving average of $162.18 and a 200 day moving average of $175.43.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

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.