Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stock Position Lowered by White Pine Investment CO

White Pine Investment CO cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 89,199 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,448 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 5.1% of White Pine Investment CO’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. White Pine Investment CO’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $21,684,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Ellenbecker Investment Group grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% in the third quarter. Ellenbecker Investment Group now owns 3,195 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $777,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Great Waters Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% during the third quarter. Great Waters Wealth Management now owns 2,448 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $595,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Shikiar Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 36.9% during the third quarter. Shikiar Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,964 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $477,000 after purchasing an additional 529 shares during the period. Matrix Trust Co grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.1% in the third quarter. Matrix Trust Co now owns 2,161 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $525,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Argent Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Argent Capital Management LLC now owns 784,861 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $190,800,000 after purchasing an additional 79,038 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $340.00 to $343.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $306.00 price objective (up from $255.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Alphabet from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Alphabet from $343.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $315.90.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.80, for a total transaction of $9,743,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,239,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $671,437,776.20. This trade represents a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $308.19, for a total value of $184,914.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,206,872.04. This trade represents a 13.29% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 208,312 shares of company stock valued at $58,775,296. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $313.51 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $328.83. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $295.59 and its 200 day moving average is $239.61. The stock has a market cap of $3.78 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.92, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 8.28%.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.