Stevens Capital Partners Buys Shares of 1,261 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Stevens Capital Partners bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 1,261 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 14.1% during the 4th quarter. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 8,203 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,562,000 after purchasing an additional 1,012 shares during the period. MONECO Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 22.5% during the 4th quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC now owns 17,365 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,307,000 after purchasing an additional 3,192 shares during the period. Forvis Mazars Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Forvis Mazars Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 21,027 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,004,000 after purchasing an additional 801 shares during the period. Panview Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $39,802,000. Finally, Wealthspire Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 176,240 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $33,563,000 after purchasing an additional 11,034 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Pivotal Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $265,914,995.28. The trade was a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 134,299 shares of company stock valued at $25,055,751 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.5 %

GOOG stock opened at $174.70 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $131.55 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The company has a 50-day moving average of $192.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $177.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

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.