Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC Buys 117 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 39.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 417 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the quarter. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $79,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. HBW Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC now owns 16,244 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,094,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Praetorian Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $207,000. Heartwood Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Heartwood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 11,241 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,141,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 12,159 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,316,000 after buying an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avondale Wealth Management lifted its stake in Alphabet by 40.0% during the 4th quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 700 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $133,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.30, for a total value of $3,741,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,106,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $350,361,837.80. This represents a 1.06 % 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, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total transaction of $262,040.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 155,887 shares of company stock valued at $27,996,356 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOG traded down $2.22 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $193.17. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 18,567,334 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,607,143. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $131.55 and a 1 year high of $202.88. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $183.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.52. The company has a market capitalization of $2.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.62, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank started coverage on Alphabet in a report on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup upped their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet 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.