Keene & Associates Inc. Raises Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Keene & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 11.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,961 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 412 shares during the quarter. Keene & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $750,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Financial Perspectives Inc increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 33.3% in the fourth quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc now owns 3,954 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $749,000 after acquiring an additional 988 shares during the period. Strata Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $233,000. Pasadena Private Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Pasadena Private Wealth LLC now owns 8,022 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,519,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Legacy Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $377,000. Finally, Hudson Value Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 22.7% during the fourth quarter. Hudson Value Partners LLC now owns 73,282 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,873,000 after buying an additional 13,564 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $167.01 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50 day moving average is $190.02 and its 200 day moving average is $176.35. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.66 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.62.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 134,316 shares of company stock valued at $25,062,887. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.