Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC decreased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 66.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,177 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 20,562 shares during the quarter. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,938,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC now owns 28,044 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,341,000 after purchasing an additional 2,390 shares during the last quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 31,967 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,088,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares during the last quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 80,652 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,359,000 after purchasing an additional 1,014 shares during the last quarter. Independent Wealth Network Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 10.3% during the fourth quarter. Independent Wealth Network Inc. now owns 4,544 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $865,000 after purchasing an additional 426 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wendell David Associates Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. Wendell David Associates Inc. now owns 3,124 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $595,000 after purchasing an additional 393 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on GOOG. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Benchmark reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.94.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 261,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 164,654 shares of company stock valued at $26,793,380 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $169.59 on Monday. 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 $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.06 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $160.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $176.56.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

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.