Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Sold by Whitener Capital Management Inc.

Whitener Capital Management Inc. cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 97,623 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,677 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 5.2% of Whitener Capital Management Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Whitener Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $18,480,000 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 GOOGL. Defined Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Defined Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,075 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $582,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Trinity Street Asset Management LLP boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Trinity Street Asset Management LLP now owns 187,231 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $35,443,000 after acquiring an additional 7,094 shares during the last quarter. 25 LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 19.8% in the fourth quarter. 25 LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $320,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares during the last quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,894 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,062,000 after buying an additional 775 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Somerset Trust Co boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Somerset Trust Co now owns 6,121 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,159,000 after buying an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL traded up $2.05 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $198.05. The stock had a trading volume of 29,346,687 shares, compared to its average volume of 23,514,902. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $184.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $173.33. The firm has a market cap of $2.42 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.98. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $130.66 and a one year high of $202.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Alphabet's payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,834 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $550,702.88. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,468,029.04. This trade represents a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on GOOGL shares. KeyCorp raised their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush raised their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $208.15.

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.