Catalyst Private Wealth LLC Reduces Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Catalyst Private Wealth LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 6,221 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 201 shares during the period. Catalyst Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,185,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth $25,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 9,200.0% in the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $33,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Scotiabank started coverage on Alphabet in a report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 target price for the company. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.30, for a total transaction of $3,741,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,106,806 shares in the company, valued at $350,361,837.80. This represents a 1.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 153,053 shares of company stock valued at $27,559,701. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.5 %

Alphabet stock opened at $192.29 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $131.55 and a 12 month high of $202.88. The company has a market capitalization of $2.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $184.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $174.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.