Howard Financial Services LTD. Cuts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Howard Financial Services LTD. reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,257 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 79 shares during the quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $811,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. M&G PLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth about $2,240,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,642,000 after purchasing an additional 14,738 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 301,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $50,488,000 after purchasing an additional 4,292 shares in the last quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 172.9% during the 3rd quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 91,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,254,000 after acquiring an additional 57,810 shares during the period. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 10.2% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 63,545 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,624,000 after acquiring an additional 5,892 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $197.55 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.20, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.99. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $185.92 and its 200 day moving average is $174.85. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $131.55 and a twelve month high of $202.88.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This trade represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total value of $3,990,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,084,306 shares in the company, valued at approximately $369,672,512.16. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOG. Pivotal Research increased their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays increased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

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.