CogentBlue Wealth Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 1,929 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

CogentBlue Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,929 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $367,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Jessup Wealth Management Inc bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $200,000. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 442,834 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $84,333,000 after acquiring an additional 12,356 shares during the last quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc now owns 27,589 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,254,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 138.7% during the fourth quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 257,800 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $49,095,000 after acquiring an additional 149,805 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Summit Place Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $205,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $181.58 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $131.55 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a market capitalization of $2.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.56, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $194.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $177.34.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 134,299 shares of company stock valued at $25,055,751. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

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.