FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH Has $11.32 Million Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 59,816 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 3,115 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 2.8% of FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $11,323,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. LMR Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Denver PWM LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 25.4% in the third quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter worth $53,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $66,000. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.6 %

GOOGL stock opened at $196.00 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a 50 day moving average of $184.43 and a 200 day moving average of $173.25. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.66 and a twelve month high of $201.42. The firm has a market cap of $2.40 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued 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. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,468,029.04. This trade represents a 13.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total value of $3,990,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,084,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $369,672,512.16. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. China Renaissance upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Roth Mkm raised their price target on Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $208.15.

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.