Sterling Financial Group Inc. Sells 142 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Sterling Financial Group Inc. lessened its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,327 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 142 shares during the period. Sterling Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $443,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Beck Bode LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.1% in the second quarter. Beck Bode LLC now owns 67,523 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,385,000 after buying an additional 4,456 shares in the last quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 56.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 438,366 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $80,405,000 after acquiring an additional 157,453 shares in the last quarter. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC now owns 23,516 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,313,000 after acquiring an additional 582 shares during the period. Simplify Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $233,000. Finally, Elite Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 33.1% in the second quarter. Elite Wealth Management Inc. now owns 46,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,549,000 after purchasing an additional 11,602 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on GOOG shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $197.55 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $185.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $174.93. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $131.55 and a 12 month high of $202.88. The company has a market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.20, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654 over the last quarter. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.