20,487 Shares in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Acquired by GWN Securities Inc.

GWN Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 20,487 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,127,000. Alphabet accounts for about 1.1% of GWN Securities Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,094,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,642,000 after buying an additional 14,738 shares in the last quarter. Requisite Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $927,000. Stevens Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 172.9% during the 3rd quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 91,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,254,000 after buying an additional 57,810 shares during the period. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 44.2% in the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 1,032,476 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $172,620,000 after acquiring an additional 316,674 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total value of $5,374,012.74. Following the transaction, the director now owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,376,238.74. The trade was a 9.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 95,882 shares of company stock worth $17,934,130. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.8 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $167.62 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $141.13 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $187.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $178.00. The firm has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.94%.

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.