Wallington Asset Management LLC Sells 78 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Wallington Asset Management LLC reduced its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,138 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 78 shares during the quarter. Wallington Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $594,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. CGN Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. CGN Advisors LLC now owns 45,813 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,672,000 after acquiring an additional 1,466 shares during the last quarter. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC now owns 46,084 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,000 after purchasing an additional 3,321 shares during the last quarter. BTS Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $485,000. Howard Financial Services LTD. raised its position in Alphabet by 101.0% in the 4th quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 11,972 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,266,000 after purchasing an additional 6,015 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alhambra Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Alhambra Investment Management LLC now owns 19,581 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,707,000 after buying an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.15.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.0 %

Alphabet stock opened at $198.05 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $184.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $173.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.27, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.98. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.66 and a 52 week high of $202.29.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 earnings per share for the current 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 given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. Company 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.