Evanson Asset Management LLC Reduces Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Evanson Asset Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 196,768 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,317 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 2.2% of Evanson Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Evanson Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $30,428,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. PayPay Securities Corp increased its position in Alphabet by 36.1% during the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $49,000. Navigoe LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $51,000. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $53,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total value of $5,742,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,555,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $451,452,029.28. The trade was a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 228,070 shares of company stock worth $37,745,632 over the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $178.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $165.19 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $164.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $174.66. The stock has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

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.