Crane Advisory LLC Reduces Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Crane Advisory LLC cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 11.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,439 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 549 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 0.1% of Crane Advisory LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Crane Advisory LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $851,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 43,005.6% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,086,250,000 after acquiring an additional 18,700,111 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 587.4% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,772,991,000 after acquiring an additional 9,135,056 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Alphabet by 116.4% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,437,957,000 after acquiring an additional 4,662,809 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Alphabet by 7.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after acquiring an additional 4,567,275 shares during the period. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 18,810.2% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $807,700,000 after purchasing an additional 4,410,811 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,468,029.04. This trade represents a 13.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total value of $3,990,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,084,306 shares in the company, valued at approximately $369,672,512.16. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654 over the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wedbush upped their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.15.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $195.55 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $183.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $173.04. The firm has a market cap of $2.39 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.94, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $130.66 and a 1 year high of $201.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.