Live Oak Private Wealth LLC Reduces Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Live Oak Private Wealth LLC lessened its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 89,606 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 4,047 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 2.9% of Live Oak Private Wealth LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Live Oak Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,064,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fairvoy Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,029,000. BSN CAPITAL PARTNERS Ltd boosted its position in Alphabet by 189.8% during the fourth quarter. BSN CAPITAL PARTNERS Ltd now owns 300,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $57,045,000 after purchasing an additional 196,470 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its position in Alphabet by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 688,178 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $131,057,000 after purchasing an additional 29,831 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 80.5% in the fourth quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,251,611 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $238,370,000 after purchasing an additional 558,040 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Telligent Fund LP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,524,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total transaction of $284,700.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 21,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,142,195.20. The trade was a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $188.20 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a market cap of $2.30 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of $193.12 and a 200-day moving average of $176.14. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $131.55 and a 1-year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

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.