Leisure Capital Management Trims Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Leisure Capital Management lessened its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,140 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,020 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 1.2% of Leisure Capital Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Leisure Capital Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,055,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Schear Investment Advisers LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 17.0% in 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 period. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 27.9% in 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 last quarter. abrdn plc grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 6,305,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,037,196,000 after buying an additional 611,233 shares during the last quarter. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 0.7% during 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 buying an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Olistico Wealth LLC raised its stake in 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 buying an additional 746 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $183.61 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $192.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.89. The company has a market cap of $2.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.81, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Pivotal Research increased their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $208.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.62.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at $364,259,266.02. This trade represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078 in the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% 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.