Amara Financial LLC. Makes New Investment in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Amara Financial LLC. purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 1,064 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $363,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 22,388 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,713,000 after purchasing an additional 2,281 shares in the last quarter. TrueWealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.0% in the 3rd quarter. TrueWealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,955 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $822,000 after purchasing an additional 685 shares in the last quarter. Lansing Street Advisors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Lansing Street Advisors now owns 8,388 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,391,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Square Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Square Asset Management LLC now owns 23,403 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,881,000 after purchasing an additional 1,001 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total value of $262,040.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $208.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.62.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $165.49 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $185.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $176.56. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.03 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. 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 announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

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.