Ameritas Advisory Services LLC Has $8.11 Million Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 10.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 42,599 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 4,953 shares during the quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $8,113,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sara Bay Financial raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Sara Bay Financial now owns 2,185 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $421,000 after buying an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Financial & Tax Architects LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 13.6% in the 4th quarter. Financial & Tax Architects LLC now owns 9,223 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,756,000 after buying an additional 1,106 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 379,163 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $72,208,000 after buying an additional 5,176 shares in the last quarter. Wallington Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Wallington Asset Management LLC now owns 83,756 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,950,000 after buying an additional 752 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GoalFusion Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $279,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total value of $234,331.14. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,516,745.58. This represents a 4.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.6 %

Alphabet stock opened at $197.55 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The firm 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. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $185.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.85. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $202.88.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given 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 (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

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.