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

Sentinus LLC reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 80.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,514 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 26,855 shares during the period. Sentinus LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,233,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after buying an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,815,948.32. The trade was a 15.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 179,324 shares of company stock valued at $30,153,353 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOGL. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $178.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Susquehanna cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four 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 $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $166.19 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $158.21 and its 200-day moving average is $175.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. 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 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

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.