Strathmore Capital Advisors Inc. Buys New Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Strathmore Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $33,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 9,200.0% during the second quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet 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 in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.30, for a total value of $3,741,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,106,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $350,361,837.80. This represents a 1.06 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 155,887 shares of company stock worth $27,996,356 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG traded down $1.08 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $196.88. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 10,909,292 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,097,542. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $131.55 and a 12-month high of $202.88. The company has a market cap of $2.41 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $182.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

About Alphabet

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.