Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is Argent Capital Management LLC’s 4th Largest Position

Argent Capital Management LLC trimmed its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 721,931 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 16,575 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 3.9% of Argent Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Argent Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $136,661,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Lantz Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.8% in the second quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 4,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $842,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Spectrum Wealth Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $218,000. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd grew its stake in Alphabet by 610.4% in the 2nd quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 411,936 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $75,034,000 after acquiring an additional 353,949 shares in the last quarter. Defined Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the second quarter. Defined Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,712 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $494,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the period. Finally, Denver PWM LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $41,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GOOGL. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Truist Financial increased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wolfe Research increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $208.15.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total value of $234,331.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,516,745.58. The trade was a 4.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654 in the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.6 %

Alphabet stock opened at $196.00 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.66 and a 52 week high of $201.42. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $184.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $173.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market capitalization of $2.40 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 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.