Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. Sells 5,660 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. cut its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 82,914 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 5,660 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 1.1% of Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest position. Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,790,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,094,000 after buying an additional 1,041 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $824,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $281,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 140.6% in the 4th quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,734 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,806,000 after purchasing an additional 8,610 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Requisite Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $927,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total transaction of $5,075,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,685,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $419,320,207.36. The trade was a 1.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $162.42 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The stock has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $163.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $177.34.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.52%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. KeyCorp cut their price objective on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.94.

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.