Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Sold by Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 9.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 171,161 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 18,804 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 1.5% of Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $23,909,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cardinal Capital Management grew its stake in Alphabet by 0.8% during the third quarter. Cardinal Capital Management now owns 64,895 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,492,000 after acquiring an additional 525 shares in the last quarter. Altus Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 40.3% during the third quarter. Altus Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,339 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $437,000 after acquiring an additional 959 shares in the last quarter. Tevis Investment Management grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.2% during the third quarter. Tevis Investment Management now owns 9,876 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,292,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network grew its stake in Alphabet by 7.2% during the third quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 8,685 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,136,000 after acquiring an additional 582 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arcus Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.8% during the third quarter. Arcus Capital Partners LLC now owns 8,671 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,135,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Wolfe Research boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $187.82.

Alphabet Trading Up 10.2 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $171.95 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $147.85 and a 200 day moving average of $141.42. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $103.54 and a 52 week high of $174.71. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 30.01%. The company had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.05 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total transaction of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,332,691 shares in the company, valued at $309,548,095.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 253,439 shares of company stock worth $36,746,578. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.