DF Dent & Co. Inc. Lowers Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

DF Dent & Co. Inc. decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,115,589 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 10,019 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 2.7% of DF Dent & Co. Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. DF Dent & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $212,453,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,843,149,000 after purchasing an additional 264,962 shares in the last quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at $505,000. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 12.6% during the 3rd quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC now owns 459,632 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $77,411,000 after buying an additional 51,321 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $166,000. Finally, Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc. now owns 51,419 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,597,000 after buying an additional 1,389 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $158.86 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.73, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $179.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $178.56. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $148.20 and a 1 year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Westpark Capital initiated coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $210.00 price target for the company. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.65.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the transaction, the director now owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total value of $3,281,671.90. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,997,521.61. This represents a 29.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 87,297 shares of company stock valued at $15,936,270 in the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.