Monarch Capital Management Inc. Acquires 200 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Monarch Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 12,265 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Monarch Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,322,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. LMR Partners LLP acquired a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Denver PWM LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 25.4% during the 3rd quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $66,000. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 19.0% during the third quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.15.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $550,702.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,468,029.04. This represents a 13.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $198.05 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $184.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $173.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week high of $202.29.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

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.