Planning Directions Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Planning Directions Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,744 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 67 shares during the period. Planning Directions Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $330,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $363,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners raised its stake in Alphabet by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 22,388 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,713,000 after purchasing an additional 2,281 shares during the last quarter. TrueWealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 16.0% in the 3rd quarter. TrueWealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,955 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $822,000 after purchasing an additional 685 shares during the last quarter. Lansing Street Advisors raised its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Lansing Street Advisors now owns 8,388 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,391,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Square Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Square Asset Management LLC now owns 23,403 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,881,000 after purchasing an additional 1,001 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on GOOGL. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total transaction of $262,040.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,961,445.55. This trade represents a 6.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 93,048 shares of company stock worth $17,374,274. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $165.49 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $185.70 and a 200 day moving average of $176.56. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.03 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio 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.