Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC Sells 535 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC reduced its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 17,440 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 535 shares during the period. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,321,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Hughes Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $225,000. Midwest Professional Planners LTD. raised its position in Alphabet by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Midwest Professional Planners LTD. now owns 11,015 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,098,000 after buying an additional 895 shares during the last quarter. Postrock Partners LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $5,283,000. Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd. now owns 105,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,178,000 after acquiring an additional 1,238 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC now owns 79,071 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,058,000 after purchasing an additional 3,898 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 95,882 shares of company stock worth $17,934,130 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.5 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $164.73 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $141.13 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The stock has a market cap of $2.01 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $187.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $177.92.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (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%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.