Meridian Financial Partners LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Meridian Financial Partners LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,226 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 1.5% of Meridian Financial Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Meridian Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,882,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Schear Investment Advisers LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during the third quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 33,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,598,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $771,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. increased its position in Alphabet by 27.9% during the 3rd quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,192,000 after purchasing an additional 5,516 shares during the period. abrdn plc raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 6,305,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,037,196,000 after buying an additional 611,233 shares in the last quarter. Finally, StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. now owns 21,509 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,567,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on GOOGL. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $190.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.15.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $550,702.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,468,029.04. This represents a 13.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $192.91 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.98. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $183.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $173.20. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week high of $201.42. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

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.