Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Sold by Sterling Investment Counsel LLC

Sterling Investment Counsel LLC cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 81.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,800 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 7,876 shares during the period. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $343,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Harrell Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Harrell Investment Partners LLC now owns 5,659 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,078,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 5,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $966,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. Investment Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Investment Advisory Group LLC now owns 7,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,463,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $243,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the period. Finally, Sunburst Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC now owns 2,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $495,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Pivotal Research raised their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank upped their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.69.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.22, for a total transaction of $291,330.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,529,987.28. The trade was a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,847 shares in the company, valued at $3,468,029.04. This represents a 13.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 121,630 shares of company stock valued at $22,258,133. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG opened at $202.63 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $203.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $189.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $175.35.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet 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.