Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership Decreases Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 21,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 2.6% of Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,032,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Defined Financial Planning LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $989,000. LaSalle St. Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 100.5% in the fourth quarter. LaSalle St. Investment Advisors LLC now owns 12,729 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,409,000 after purchasing an additional 6,379 shares during the last quarter. Broyhill Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $631,000. Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 65,357 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,372,000 after buying an additional 2,691 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hanlon Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,553 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $673,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $178.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, DZ Bank cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.74.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 115,663 shares of company stock valued at $20,286,447. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $151.08 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $165.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 18.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

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.