Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. Acquires 67 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,088 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the quarter. Valley Brook Capital Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $774,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,910,838,000 after buying an additional 743,369 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after purchasing an additional 4,567,275 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,268,933,000 after purchasing an additional 1,237,385 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 37,233,079 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,175,106,000 after acquiring an additional 523,416 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. DZ Bank downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Pivotal Research increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $208.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 134,299 shares of company stock valued at $25,055,751. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $179.66 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $2.19 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $130.66 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $192.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $175.93.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

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.