Baskin Financial Services Inc. Decreases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Baskin Financial Services Inc. decreased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 12,902 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 510 shares during the quarter. Baskin Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,442,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. LMR Partners LLP purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 518.8% during the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Denver PWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 25.4% in the third quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $66,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird restated an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. DZ Bank lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup cut 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. Pivotal Research upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $185.32 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $130.66 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company’s fifty day moving average is $191.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $174.76. The company has a market capitalization of $2.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.02, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 8.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. 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.