BCS Wealth Management Acquires 987 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

BCS Wealth Management grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 20.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,824 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 987 shares during the quarter. BCS Wealth Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,102,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Lantz Financial LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 10.8% during the second quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 4,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $842,000 after acquiring an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Spectrum Wealth Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth $218,000. Vance Wealth Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vance Wealth Inc. now owns 3,089 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $563,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. JFG Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the 2nd quarter. JFG Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,011 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $366,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. now owns 144,068 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,242,000 after buying an additional 4,903 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.7 %

GOOGL stock opened at $189.66 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $183.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $173.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $130.66 and a 12 month high of $201.42. The company has a market cap of $2.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.15, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during 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 quarter last year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on GOOGL shares. Wolfe Research increased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Pivotal Research increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Loop Capital raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.15.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total transaction of $3,990,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,084,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $369,672,512.16. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 130,553 shares of company stock valued at $23,817,951. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.