Ervin Investment Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ervin Investment Management LLC trimmed its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,759 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 217 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.5% of Ervin Investment Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Ervin Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,239,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 9,200.0% during the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 87.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 target price on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their price target on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.1 %

GOOG stock opened at $199.63 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $186.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $174.83. The company has a market cap of $2.44 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $131.55 and a 52 week high of $203.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total transaction of $3,990,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,084,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $369,672,512.16. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total value of $559,856.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at $4,085,531.55. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.