Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC Invests $447,000 in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 2,413 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $447,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Alphabet by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after buying an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total transaction of $238,347.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 164,654 shares of company stock valued at $26,793,380 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $168.47 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $158.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.87. The company has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted 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. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business 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 $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. UBS Group set a $195.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

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.