Howe & Rusling Inc. Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Howe & Rusling Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 73,447 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,587 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 1.2% of Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest position. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $13,987,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $33,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report 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. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 93,048 shares of company stock worth $17,374,274 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 3.3 %

GOOG opened at $167.14 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $182.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $178.36. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $148.20 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS 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%. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio 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.