D.B. Root & Company LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

D.B. Root & Company LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 14.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 14,146 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,398 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 0.8% of D.B. Root & Company LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding. D.B. Root & Company LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,346,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. New Hampshire Trust grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. New Hampshire Trust now owns 43,714 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,963,000 after buying an additional 1,132 shares during the period. Berkshire Money Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $359,000. Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors LP increased its position in Alphabet by 58.4% during the first quarter. Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors LP now owns 6,374 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $962,000 after purchasing an additional 2,351 shares during the last quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 4.5% during the third quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $771,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the period. Finally, abrdn plc boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 6,305,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,037,196,000 after purchasing an additional 611,233 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $178.12 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.62, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $127.90 and a twelve month high of $191.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $166.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $170.36.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) 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 the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOGL. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.90.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total transaction of $3,442,233.45. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 39,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,307,206.90. This trade represents a 35.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total transaction of $3,570,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,137,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,160,251.80. This trade represents a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 184,295 shares of company stock valued at $30,698,791. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.