Wedgewood Investors Inc. PA Lowers Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Wedgewood Investors Inc. PA decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,550 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 2.4% of Wedgewood Investors Inc. PA’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Wedgewood Investors Inc. PA’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,009,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,193,768,000 after buying an additional 5,655,022 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,573,125,000 after acquiring an additional 3,113,395 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 65.9% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 6,294,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,052,349,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500,621 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 182.1% during the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,526,055 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $422,331,000 after purchasing an additional 1,630,701 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,578,793,000 after purchasing an additional 1,291,274 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GOOG. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group raised their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.6 %

GOOG opened at $185.67 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $194.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $176.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.07, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Insiders have sold a total of 67,029 shares of company stock valued at $12,625,003 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.