Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. Acquires Shares of 1,512 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 1,512 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $286,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. LMR Partners LLP purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. boosted its stake 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 in the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 36.1% during the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total transaction of $262,040.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 87,992 shares of company stock worth $16,093,773. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on GOOGL. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.49.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $154.64 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.89 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.21, a PEG 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. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $178.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $177.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $147.22 and a 52 week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 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.