Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC Purchases 300 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,576 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 300 shares during the quarter. Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $779,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Spreng Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 4.0% in the first quarter. Spreng Capital Management Inc. now owns 131 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $364,000 after purchasing an additional 5 shares during the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% in the first quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,754 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,878,000 after purchasing an additional 6 shares during the last quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.1% in the first quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. now owns 296 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $823,000 after purchasing an additional 6 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.8% in the first quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,115,000 after purchasing an additional 7 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Weik Capital Management increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.5% in the first quarter. Weik Capital Management now owns 1,533 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,264,000 after purchasing an additional 8 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Mizuho upped their price objective on Alphabet from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Alphabet from $158.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com upgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 20th. Wolfe Research increased their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $157.00.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $155.47 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $145.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $140.29. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $102.63 and a 52 week high of $160.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.93 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.05 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $243,854,485.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $243,854,485.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,377,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $347,832,416.39. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 251,339 shares of company stock valued at $36,377,482 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

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.