Stonekeep Investments LLC Sells 279 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Stonekeep Investments LLC trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,816 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 279 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 1.1% of Stonekeep Investments LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. Stonekeep Investments LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,489,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. M&G PLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,240,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,642,000 after purchasing an additional 14,738 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% in the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 301,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $50,488,000 after purchasing an additional 4,292 shares during the last quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 172.9% in the third quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 91,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,254,000 after purchasing an additional 57,810 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.2% during the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 63,545 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,624,000 after buying an additional 5,892 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total transaction of $234,331.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,516,745.58. This trade represents a 4.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $197.55 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $185.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $131.55 and a 12-month high of $202.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective on the stock. Pivotal Research raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

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.