XTX Topco Ltd Sells 17,245 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

XTX Topco Ltd cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 70.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 7,123 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 17,245 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,348,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Broyhill Asset Management bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $631,000. Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 65,357 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,372,000 after acquiring an additional 2,691 shares during the period. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,553 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $673,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. CreativeOne Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 43.2% during the fourth quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 114,687 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $21,710,000 after purchasing an additional 34,592 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mariner LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 3,743,694 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $708,740,000 after purchasing an additional 137,234 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total transaction of $3,281,671.90. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 43,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,997,521.61. This trade represents a 29.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 115,663 shares of company stock worth $20,286,447 over the last quarter. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.5 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $151.08 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50-day moving average of $165.82 and a 200 day moving average of $175.88. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors 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 yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on GOOGL shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $184.00 to $167.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 31st. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Alphabet from $208.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price target on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.74.

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.