CENTRAL TRUST Co Has $54.98 Million Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

CENTRAL TRUST Co reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 290,411 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 17,410 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.3% of CENTRAL TRUST Co’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. CENTRAL TRUST Co’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $54,975,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Schear Investment Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during the third quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 33,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,598,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. boosted its position in Alphabet by 27.9% during the 3rd quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,192,000 after buying an additional 5,516 shares during the period. abrdn plc grew its holdings in Alphabet by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 6,305,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,037,196,000 after acquiring an additional 611,233 shares during the last quarter. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. now owns 21,509 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,567,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the period. Finally, Olistico Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Olistico Wealth LLC now owns 8,981 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,700,000 after acquiring an additional 746 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was 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 $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total value of $284,700.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,142,195.20. This represents a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. DZ Bank lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $229.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. DA Davidson upped their target price on Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.62.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.6 %

GOOGL stock opened at $185.32 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.66 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $191.90 and its 200-day moving average is $174.76.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

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.