Colonial Trust Advisors Cuts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Colonial Trust Advisors trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 131,890 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,610 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 2.2% of Colonial Trust Advisors’ holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Colonial Trust Advisors’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $24,967,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 518.8% in the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the period. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 36.1% during the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Finally, Denver PWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 25.4% during the third quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 118,497 shares of company stock worth $20,837,150. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $159.07 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $167.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $176.28. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The company has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on GOOGL. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. DZ Bank lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $184.00 to $167.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.49.

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.