Community Financial Services Group LLC Cuts Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Community Financial Services Group LLC decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 8.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,325 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 411 shares during the quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $819,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Peoples Financial Services CORP. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the third quarter. Peoples Financial Services CORP. now owns 14,939 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,478,000 after buying an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 190,810 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,646,000 after buying an additional 5,306 shares in the last quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% in the third quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 80,123 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,288,000 after buying an additional 856 shares in the last quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 13.0% in the third quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. now owns 2,213 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $367,000 after buying an additional 254 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Leisure Capital Management increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% in the third quarter. Leisure Capital Management now owns 17,160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,846,000 after buying an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were 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 in the company, 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. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 134,299 shares of company stock valued at $25,055,751. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup dropped 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. Roth Mkm lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $179.66 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $192.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $175.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.19 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $130.66 and a one year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

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.