Bill Few Associates Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Bill Few Associates Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 39,810 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 308 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 2.7% of Bill Few Associates Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Bill Few Associates Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,581,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GOOG. M&G PLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,240,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 14.4% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,642,000 after buying an additional 14,738 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 301,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,488,000 after buying an additional 4,292 shares during the period. Stevens Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 172.9% in the 3rd quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 91,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,254,000 after buying an additional 57,810 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.2% in the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 63,545 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,624,000 after acquiring an additional 5,892 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.2 %

Alphabet stock opened at $201.90 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $131.55 and a 1 year high of $203.84. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $187.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $175.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The stock has a market cap of $2.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.78, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 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 business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $550,702.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,468,029.04. This trade represents a 13.70 % 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, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total transaction of $3,990,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,084,306 shares in the company, valued at approximately $369,672,512.16. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on GOOG shares. Citigroup raised their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report 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. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.13.

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.