Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC Acquires 910 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 19,494 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 910 shares during the quarter. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,811,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. LMR Partners LLP bought a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Denver PWM LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $41,000. Quarry LP bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth about $53,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $66,000. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 19.0% during the third quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $217.00 price objective (up previously from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $210.00 price target (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Pivotal Research increased their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $206.82.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total transaction of $262,040.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.95, for a total transaction of $247,425.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,342,143.80. The trade was a 5.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 155,887 shares of company stock valued at $27,996,356 in the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of GOOGL opened at $193.95 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $130.66 and a 1-year high of $201.42. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $182.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $173.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.37 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.72, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

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.