Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Purchased by Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC

Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 42,710 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,433 shares during the quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $8,085,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $363,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 728,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $120,834,000 after purchasing an additional 46,677 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,871,384,000 after purchasing an additional 337,031 shares during the period. Lewis Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC now owns 9,371 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,554,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. Finally, Vista Capital Partners Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 42.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,889 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $645,000 after purchasing an additional 1,165 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $163.99 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $147.22 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $182.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.38.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. KeyCorp reduced their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. DA Davidson lifted their target price on Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Wedbush lifted their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.59.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 93,048 shares of company stock worth $17,374,274 over the last ninety days. Company 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.