Powell Investment Advisors LLC Raises Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Powell Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 10.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,553 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 238 shares during the period. Powell Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $486,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOG. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 42.8% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 6,511 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,089,000 after purchasing an additional 1,953 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 1,544,297 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $256,177,000 after purchasing an additional 92,556 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,394,181,000 after purchasing an additional 51,226 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.0% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 71,764 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,998,000 after purchasing an additional 2,067 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Indiana Trust & Investment Management Co grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.2% during the third quarter. Indiana Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 7,841 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,311,000 after purchasing an additional 530 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOG. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Barclays raised their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, 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. Six equities research 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $187.88 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $193.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $176.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.95. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $131.55 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The company has a market cap of $2.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.34, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 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%. Research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given 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 (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. The trade was a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company 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.