Liberty Wealth Management LLC Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Liberty Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 39.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 15,762 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,492 shares during the quarter. Liberty Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,002,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 287.9% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 225 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $265,914,995.28. The trade was a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total value of $5,374,012.74. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 95,682 shares of company stock worth $17,901,024 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on GOOG shares. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.8 %

GOOG opened at $169.00 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $188.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $178.02. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.01 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The firm has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

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.