Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Sold by Ancora Advisors LLC

Ancora Advisors LLC decreased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 92,178 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 558 shares during the quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,449,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 518.8% during the fourth quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp lifted its position in Alphabet by 36.1% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $49,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOGL. DZ Bank lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.46.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $164.03 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The company has a market capitalization of $1.99 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.38, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $160.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $175.34. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 148,164 shares of company stock valued at $25,357,390 in the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.