Romano Brothers AND Company Sells 172 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Romano Brothers AND Company trimmed its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 46,886 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 172 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 1.1% of Romano Brothers AND Company’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest position. Romano Brothers AND Company’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $8,929,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,193,768,000 after acquiring an additional 5,655,022 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,557,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,247,208,000 after acquiring an additional 259,213 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,573,125,000 after acquiring an additional 3,113,395 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,578,793,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291,274 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after acquiring an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total value of $234,331.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,516,745.58. This represents a 4.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOG. Pivotal Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup upped their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.6 %

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $197.55 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $202.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $185.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.76. The stock has a market cap of $2.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.61%.

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.