Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. Decreases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. lowered its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 82,914 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 5,660 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.1% of Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position. Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,790,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,094,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $824,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $281,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 140.6% during the 4th quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,734 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,806,000 after purchasing an additional 8,610 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Requisite Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $927,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on GOOG. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp cut their price objective on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.94.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $162.42 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $163.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $177.34. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total transaction of $5,075,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,685,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $419,320,207.36. The trade was a 1.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. This trade represents a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647 in the last three months. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.