Davis Selected Advisers Reduces Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Davis Selected Advisers reduced its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 646,956 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 18,720 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 0.7% of Davis Selected Advisers’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Davis Selected Advisers’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $123,206,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,394,181,000 after buying an additional 51,226 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $2,240,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. Verity Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $322,000. Finally, AIA Group Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 95,629 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,988,000 after buying an additional 7,536 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $175.75 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $189.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $178.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $134.80 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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%. Equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.94%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total transaction of $238,347.78. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 134,316 shares of company stock valued at $25,062,887 in the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.