Grantvest Financial Group LLC Takes Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Grantvest Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,581 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $301,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after buying an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 13,526 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,261,000 after purchasing an additional 909 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $6,224,000. Towercrest Capital Management grew its holdings in Alphabet by 3.7% in the third quarter. Towercrest Capital Management now owns 4,171 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $697,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truepoint Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Truepoint Inc. now owns 3,017 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $504,000 after acquiring an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GOOG. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “negative” 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 issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $166.25 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $184.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $178.22. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $148.20 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.94%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.