Certified Advisory Corp Sells 64 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Certified Advisory Corp cut its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 17,236 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 64 shares during the period. Certified Advisory Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,282,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Beck Bode LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 7.1% during the 2nd quarter. Beck Bode LLC now owns 67,523 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,385,000 after buying an additional 4,456 shares in the last quarter. WCG Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 20.3% during the second quarter. WCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 26,937 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,941,000 after purchasing an additional 4,539 shares in the last quarter. Concorde Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $218,000. Somerset Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.5% in the second quarter. Somerset Group LLC now owns 10,501 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,926,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 33.5% in the 2nd quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC now owns 801 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $147,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total transaction of $3,990,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,084,306 shares in the company, valued at $369,672,512.16. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on GOOG. UBS Group increased their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $197.55 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $185.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $174.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $131.55 and a 52-week high of $202.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. 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.