Retirement Solution LLC Lowers Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Retirement Solution LLC decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 54.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,220 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,453 shares during the quarter. Retirement Solution LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $231,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.1% in the third 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 period. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its stake in Alphabet by 6.8% in the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 728,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $120,834,000 after acquiring an additional 46,677 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 3.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,871,384,000 after acquiring an additional 337,031 shares during the last quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 6.8% in the third quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC now owns 9,371 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,554,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vista Capital Partners Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 42.8% in the third quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,889 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $645,000 after acquiring an additional 1,165 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 272,466 shares in the company, valued at $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 93,048 shares of company stock worth $17,374,274 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $163.99 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.37, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $147.22 and a one year high of $207.05. The company’s fifty day moving average is $182.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.38. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its 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 net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.59.

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.