Hilltop National Bank Decreases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Hilltop National Bank reduced its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 9.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,571 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 356 shares during the period. Hilltop National Bank’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $680,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9,200.0% in the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price target on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock traded down $1.61 during trading on Friday, reaching $193.78. The company had a trading volume of 6,529,103 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,565,690. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.37 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $183.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.52. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $131.55 and a 52 week high of $202.88.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total transaction of $473,929.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,406,343.27. This represents a 9.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of Alphabet 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 completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 155,887 shares of company stock worth $27,996,356. Corporate insiders own 12.99% 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.