Wealthfront Advisers LLC Sells 438,360 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Wealthfront Advisers LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 97.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,554 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 438,360 shares during the quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,162,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB increased its position in Alphabet by 0.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,394,181,000 after buying an additional 51,226 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 2.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after buying an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Alphabet by 5.7% in the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 276,409 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $46,213,000 after buying an additional 14,847 shares during the last quarter. Lummis Asset Management LP increased its position in Alphabet by 12.4% in the third quarter. Lummis Asset Management LP now owns 21,313 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,563,000 after buying an additional 2,354 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intelligence Driven Advisers LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 15.8% in the third quarter. Intelligence Driven Advisers LLC now owns 10,039 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,678,000 after buying an additional 1,370 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Benchmark reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citizens Jmp cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $167.62 on Friday. 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 has a 50-day moving average price of $187.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $177.92. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $141.13 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The firm has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly 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 return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 transaction, the insider now owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total value of $559,856.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,085,531.55. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 95,882 shares of company stock valued at $17,934,130 over the last 90 days. 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.