Barrett & Company Inc. Purchases New Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Barrett & Company Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 9,928 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,891,000. Alphabet accounts for approximately 0.8% of Barrett & Company Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest position.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GOOG. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 32.3% in the 3rd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 344 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.22, for a total transaction of $291,330.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 23,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,529,987.28. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on GOOG shares. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $188.20 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.30 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $193.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.14. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $131.55 and a 1-year high of $208.70.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.