GoalVest Advisory LLC Buys 259 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

GoalVest Advisory LLC increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 22.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,411 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 259 shares during the period. GoalVest Advisory LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $236,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. M&G PLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $2,240,000. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 5.3% in the second quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $390,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 1.4% in the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 301,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,488,000 after acquiring an additional 4,292 shares during the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 10.2% in the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 63,545 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,624,000 after acquiring an additional 5,892 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton grew its position in Alphabet by 4.6% in the second quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 11,366 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,097,000 after acquiring an additional 498 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on GOOG shares. Barclays lifted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. DA Davidson raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $173.89 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.04. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $167.01 and its 200 day moving average is $171.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $129.40 and a one year high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. This represents a 8.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total value of $3,570,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,137,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,160,251.80. The trade was a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,471,141 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.