Saratoga Research & Investment Management Reduces Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Saratoga Research & Investment Management decreased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 37.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,019 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 4,788 shares during the period. Saratoga Research & Investment Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,527,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,557,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,247,208,000 after purchasing an additional 259,213 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 30,824,307 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,870,181,000 after buying an additional 875,480 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $5,166,070,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% in the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,483,070 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,615,516,000 after acquiring an additional 144,170 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total transaction of $284,700.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at $4,142,195.20. The trade was a 6.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total value of $262,040.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 87,992 shares of company stock worth $16,097,111. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG opened at $156.06 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $181.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $178.69. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $148.20 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The company has a market cap of $1.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.39, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

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.