Welch & Forbes LLC Purchases 813 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Welch & Forbes LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,202,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 813 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 2.9% of Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $228,996,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 134,316 shares of company stock valued at $25,062,887 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $175.75 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.83, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $189.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $177.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $134.80 and a 12 month high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

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.