Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC Trims Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 66.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 180 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 359 shares during the quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $34,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Schear Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 17.0% in the third quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 33,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,598,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $771,000 after buying an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 27.9% in the 3rd quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,192,000 after buying an additional 5,516 shares during the period. abrdn plc increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 6,305,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,037,196,000 after acquiring an additional 611,233 shares in the last quarter. Finally, StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. now owns 21,509 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,567,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $196.00 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $184.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $173.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.66 and a 52 week high of $201.42. The stock has a market cap of $2.40 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.99, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total value of $1,898,190.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 330,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $59,741,643.48. This represents a 3.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654 in the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $210.00 target price (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research lifted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.15.

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.