Cornerstone Advisors LLC Has $113.03 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Cornerstone Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 593,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,500 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 4.5% of Cornerstone Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Cornerstone Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $113,026,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in 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 during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after acquiring an additional 264,962 shares during the period. Summit Wealth & Retirement Planning Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.2% in the third quarter. Summit Wealth & Retirement Planning Inc. now owns 5,164 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $863,000 after acquiring an additional 160 shares during the period. Costello Asset Management INC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% in the third quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 29,710 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,967,000 after acquiring an additional 660 shares during the period. Finally, Liberty Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the third quarter. Liberty Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,270 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,884,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 4.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $167.81 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $189.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $178.09. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.07 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The company has a market cap of $2.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.85, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share 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, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.94%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.22, for a total transaction of $291,330.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 23,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,529,987.28. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total value of $559,856.70. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at $4,085,531.55. This trade represents a 12.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 97,182 shares of company stock valued at $18,192,354 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.