Marion Wealth Management Grows Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Marion Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 21,666 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 339 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.1% of Marion Wealth Management’s holdings, making the stock its 27th largest position. Marion Wealth Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,101,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Courier Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 27.0% in the 4th quarter. Courier Capital LLC now owns 17,567 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,325,000 after buying an additional 3,735 shares during the last quarter. Northstar Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 44.6% in the 4th quarter. Northstar Advisory Group LLC now owns 23,855 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,516,000 after purchasing an additional 7,362 shares during the period. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,845 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,864,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. increased its position in Alphabet by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 8,145 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,542,000 after buying an additional 552 shares during the period. Finally, Ehrlich Financial Group purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $222,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Roth Mkm raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Loop Capital boosted their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.15.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total value of $559,856.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,085,531.55. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 153,053 shares of company stock worth $27,559,701. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $191.01 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $183.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $172.99. The company has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $130.66 and a 12-month high of $201.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.