FORA Capital LLC Trims Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

FORA Capital LLC trimmed its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 72.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,250 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 16,250 shares during the period. FORA Capital LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,183,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 518.8% during the fourth quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 36.1% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $152.75 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.98, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a fifty day moving average of $158.93 and a 200 day moving average of $175.10. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on GOOGL. 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. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $189.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,815,948.32. The trade was a 15.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 179,324 shares of company stock worth $30,153,353. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

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.