Argent Capital Management LLC Lowers Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Argent Capital Management LLC reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 16,280 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 270 shares during the period. Argent Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,100,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 5,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $966,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Sunburst Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC now owns 2,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $495,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Johnson Financial Group LLC now owns 2,360 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $395,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. Fortitude Family Office LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 8,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,585,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Phillips Financial Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.6% during the third quarter. Phillips Financial Management LLC now owns 3,852 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $644,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total value of $559,856.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,085,531.55. This trade represents a 12.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $197.55 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $185.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.84. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $202.88. 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 market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.20, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on GOOG shares. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citizens Jmp lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

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.