Castle Wealth Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Castle Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 31.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,564 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,540 shares during the quarter. Castle Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,752,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its position in Alphabet by 75.0% during the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $36,000. Denver PWM LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth about $41,000. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at approximately $55,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total value of $3,442,233.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 39,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,307,206.90. The trade was a 35.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 32,017 shares in the company, valued at $5,136,807.48. The trade was a 2.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 184,295 shares of company stock valued at $30,698,791 over the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Roth Mkm upped their target price on Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.90.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $175.98 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $167.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $170.40. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $127.90 and a 1 year high of $191.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The company has a market capitalization of $2.15 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.61%.

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.