Ridgewood Investments LLC Sells 259 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ridgewood Investments LLC lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 13,242 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 259 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.2% of Ridgewood Investments LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Ridgewood Investments LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,522,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. M&G PLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,240,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,642,000 after buying an additional 14,738 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 301,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,488,000 after buying an additional 4,292 shares during the last quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP increased its stake in Alphabet by 172.9% in the 3rd quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 91,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,254,000 after buying an additional 57,810 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 63,545 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,624,000 after buying an additional 5,892 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of GOOG traded down $1.89 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $193.50. 6,977,692 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,637,823. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $183.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $174.52. The company has a market capitalization of $2.37 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $131.55 and a 12 month high of $202.88.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 155,887 shares of company stock valued at $27,996,356 over the last three months. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on GOOG shares. Pivotal Research increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Company 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.