Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. Sells 327 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 14.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,886 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 327 shares during the period. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $357,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Schear Investment Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 17.0% in the third quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 33,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,598,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $771,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 27.9% in the 3rd quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,192,000 after purchasing an additional 5,516 shares in the last quarter. abrdn plc grew its position in Alphabet by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 6,305,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,037,196,000 after purchasing an additional 611,233 shares during the last quarter. Finally, StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. now owns 21,509 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,567,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total value of $3,990,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,084,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $369,672,512.16. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 130,553 shares of company stock valued at $23,817,951. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $189.66 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week high of $201.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $183.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $173.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.32 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.15, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Robert W. Baird reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.15.

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.