D.A. Davidson & CO. Increases Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 288,712 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,806 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $54,982,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. boosted 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 worth $42,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 33.0% in the fourth quarter. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 266 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GOOG. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 134,299 shares of company stock valued at $25,055,751 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.7 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $181.58 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $194.02 and its 200 day moving average is $177.22. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.21 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

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.