LJI Wealth Management LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

LJI Wealth Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,084 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 538 shares during the quarter. LJI Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,341,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bennett Selby Investments LP lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP now owns 1,354 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $256,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,845 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,864,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Denver PWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Ignite Planners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 15,078 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,892,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fermata Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 7,433 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,407,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total value of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 98,919 shares of company stock valued at $18,528,318 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $185.19 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.66 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.26 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $192.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $175.49.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. Research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on GOOGL. Wedbush raised their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Roth Mkm raised their target price on Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $229.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

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.