First Horizon Advisors Inc. Lowers Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 161,748 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,484 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $30,803,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 87.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 33.0% in the 4th quarter. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 266 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % 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 Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares in the company, valued at $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 134,299 shares of company stock worth $25,055,751 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $177.37 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $193.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $177.66. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $131.55 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 firm has a market cap of $2.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share 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%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

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.