Armor Investment Advisors LLC Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Armor Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,988 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the period. Armor Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,891,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brady Family Wealth LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Brady Family Wealth LLC now owns 68,597 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,377,000 after buying an additional 1,048 shares in the last quarter. Lynch & Associates IN increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Lynch & Associates IN now owns 30,534 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,064,000 after buying an additional 508 shares in the last quarter. ERn Financial LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. ERn Financial LLC now owns 17,274 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,865,000 after buying an additional 263 shares in the last quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda now owns 9,203 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,526,000 after buying an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC now owns 6,399 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,061,000 after buying an additional 444 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on GOOGL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $229.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $208.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Loop Capital upped their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.62.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.7 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $179.66 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.66 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $192.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $175.69. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. Research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th 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 0.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the transaction, the director now owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total value of $3,281,671.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,111 shares in the company, valued at $7,997,521.61. This trade represents a 29.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 134,299 shares of company stock valued at $25,055,751. 11.55% of the stock is currently 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.