Eagle Ridge Investment Management Sells 450 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Eagle Ridge Investment Management trimmed its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,338 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 450 shares during the quarter. Eagle Ridge Investment Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,254,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 32.3% in the third quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 344 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $188.20 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $193.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.14. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $131.55 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on GOOG. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. This trade represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.