WCG Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

WCG Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 28,351 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the quarter. WCG Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,399,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,094,000 after buying an additional 1,041 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $824,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $281,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 140.6% during the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,734 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,806,000 after acquiring an additional 8,610 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Requisite Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $927,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total transaction of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,613 shares in the company, valued at $1,232,544.70. This represents a 2.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total transaction of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares in the company, valued at $413,555,306.40. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 112,054 shares of company stock worth $17,722,605 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on GOOG. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.94.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock opened at $171.98 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $160.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.63. The stock has a market cap of $2.09 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.36, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 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 paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.