Pettyjohn Wood & White Inc. Cuts Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Pettyjohn Wood & White Inc. reduced its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 18,547 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 110 shares during the period. Pettyjohn Wood & White Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,532,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,394,181,000 after purchasing an additional 51,226 shares in the last quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC now owns 13,456 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,250,000 after buying an additional 2,069 shares in the last quarter. Allen Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Allen Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $223,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. GFS Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10,976.6% in the third quarter. GFS Advisors LLC now owns 35,556 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,945,000 after acquiring an additional 35,235 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.0% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 547,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $90,010,000 after acquiring an additional 54,262 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. This trade represents a 8.38 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $265,914,995.28. This trade represents a 1.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 134,316 shares of company stock valued at $25,062,887 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.1 %

GOOG opened at $168.66 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $131.55 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The business’s 50 day moving average is $191.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $177.88. The firm has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GOOG. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

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.