4WEALTH Advisors Inc. Makes New $725,000 Investment in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

4WEALTH Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 3,832 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $725,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 518.8% during the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp grew its holdings in Alphabet by 36.1% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Navigoe LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on GOOGL. DZ Bank lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Westpark Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.46.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total value of $5,075,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,685,196 shares in the company, valued at $419,320,207.36. This represents a 1.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total value of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,232,544.70. This trade represents a 2.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 148,164 shares of company stock valued at $25,357,390. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $161.30 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The company has a 50 day moving average of $160.42 and a 200-day moving average of $175.35. 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 cap of $1.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

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.