Forbes J M & Co. LLP Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Forbes J M & Co. LLP raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,729 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,017 shares during the quarter. Forbes J M & Co. LLP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,186,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 42.8% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 6,511 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,089,000 after purchasing an additional 1,953 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its holdings in Alphabet by 6.4% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 1,544,297 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $256,177,000 after purchasing an additional 92,556 shares in the last quarter. BlueSky Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. BlueSky Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 30,337 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,072,000 after buying an additional 994 shares during the last quarter. GenWealth Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 12.4% in the 3rd quarter. GenWealth Group Inc. now owns 1,455 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $243,000 after buying an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 30.2% in the 3rd quarter. Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,157 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $695,000 after buying an additional 964 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Pivotal Research boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $187.07 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $193.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.27. The company has a market cap of $2.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.24, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

About Alphabet

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.