Shell Asset Management Co. Sells 5,896 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Shell Asset Management Co. lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 159,799 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 5,896 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 1.3% of Shell Asset Management Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Shell Asset Management Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $30,250,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 732,623 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $138,686,000 after acquiring an additional 22,859 shares during the period. Raiffeisen Bank International AG acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $294,063,000. Ratan Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $11,803,000. Redwood Financial Network Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. Redwood Financial Network Corp now owns 5,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,064,000 after purchasing an additional 552 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Redwood Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 16.7% during the 4th quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 77,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,702,000 after purchasing an additional 11,105 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $163.96 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $158.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.99 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. DA Davidson lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,815,948.32. This represents a 15.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 179,324 shares of company stock worth $30,153,353. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.