First Heartland Consultants Inc. Lowers Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

First Heartland Consultants Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 8.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 693 shares during the quarter. First Heartland Consultants Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,459,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Alphabet by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 66,050,135 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,503,291,000 after purchasing an additional 9,042,271 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 129,744 shares of company stock worth $20,968,366. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group set a $195.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $163.98 on Wednesday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $1.99 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 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 stock’s 50-day moving average price is $158.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.93.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

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.