Wealthspire Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Wealthspire Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 11.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 99,011 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,034 shares during the period. Wealthspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $18,743,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. LMR Partners LLP acquired a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $32,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. raised its position in Alphabet by 518.8% during the fourth quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 36.1% in the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $173.86 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $134.00 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The company’s fifty day moving average is $188.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.40. 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:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results 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 net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 43,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,997,521.61. This trade represents a 29.09 % decrease in their position. 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 stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 134,316 shares of company stock valued at $25,062,887 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.