Austin Asset Management Co Inc Sells 564 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Austin Asset Management Co Inc decreased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 20.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,180 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 564 shares during the period. Austin Asset Management Co Inc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $415,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 32.3% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. The trade was a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was 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 owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.6 %

GOOG opened at $187.07 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.24, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $193.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $176.27.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. 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.