Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,783 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 157 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.7% of Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,815,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,193,768,000 after acquiring an additional 5,655,022 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 10.3% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,573,125,000 after purchasing an additional 3,113,395 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 65.9% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 6,294,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,052,349,000 after purchasing an additional 2,500,621 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 27.8% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 7,499,245 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,375,512,000 after buying an additional 1,632,691 shares during the period. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 182.1% during the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,526,055 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $422,331,000 after buying an additional 1,630,701 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on GOOG. Pivotal Research raised their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, DA Davidson upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total transaction of $559,856.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at $4,085,531.55. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 155,887 shares of company stock valued at $27,996,356 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.5 %

Alphabet stock traded up $4.83 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $197.96. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 17,565,023 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,371,597. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $181.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $173.97. The company has a market cap of $2.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $202.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Alphabet Company 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.