CWA Asset Management Group LLC Has $30.09 Million Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 157,998 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,861 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 1.5% of CWA Asset Management Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. CWA Asset Management Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $30,089,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.9% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,184,399 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,384,039,000 after buying an additional 704,875 shares in the last quarter. First Citizens Financial Corp acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $234,000. NRI Wealth Management LC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $2,639,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 15.9% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 76,750 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,616,000 after purchasing an additional 10,537 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 22.9% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 7,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,470,000 after acquiring an additional 1,438 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of several analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price target for the company. Finally, DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of GOOG traded up $5.11 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $198.24. 4,916,464 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,523,149. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.43 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $181.77 and a 200-day moving average of $173.97. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $202.88.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were 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 directly owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 155,887 shares of company stock valued at $27,996,356 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet 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.