ACT Advisors LLC. Raises Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

ACT Advisors LLC. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,468 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. ACT Advisors LLC.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $280,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. City State Bank lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. City State Bank now owns 15,744 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,998,000 after acquiring an additional 848 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% in the 4th quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH now owns 52,590 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,015,000 after acquiring an additional 11,494 shares during the period. Fiduciary Alliance LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 101.8% in the 4th quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 32,699 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,227,000 after acquiring an additional 16,497 shares during the period. Winthrop Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Winthrop Advisory Group LLC now owns 16,380 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,119,000 after acquiring an additional 636 shares during the period. Finally, Headwater Capital Co Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $22,853,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on GOOG. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.3 %

Alphabet stock traded down $2.55 during trading on Monday, reaching $190.62. The company had a trading volume of 5,128,305 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,248,721. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $131.55 and a 12-month high of $202.88. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $184.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $174.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.28, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total transaction of $473,929.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at $4,406,343.27. This represents a 9.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 154,387 shares of company stock worth $27,748,931 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company 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.