Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s 8th Largest Position

Appleton Partners Inc. MA lessened its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 154,394 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 5,934 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 2.2% of Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $29,403,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. M&G PLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,240,000. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,094,000 after buying an additional 1,041 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 14.4% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,642,000 after acquiring an additional 14,738 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 1.4% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 301,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,488,000 after acquiring an additional 4,292 shares during the period. Finally, Requisite Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $927,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective 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. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.22, for a total value of $291,330.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 23,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,529,987.28. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $188.20 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.30 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.38, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. 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 business’s 50 day moving average is $193.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.14. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $131.55 and a 52-week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 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.