Verde Capital Management Takes Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Verde Capital Management acquired a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,196 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $226,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. LMR Partners LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth approximately $32,000. Denver PWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 25.4% in the third quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth approximately $53,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth approximately $66,000. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 19.0% in the third quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.82.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total value of $234,331.14. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,516,745.58. This represents a 4.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 122,887 shares of company stock valued at $22,470,464. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $195.30 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $186.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $173.61. 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 1-year low of $130.66 and a 1-year high of $202.29. The company has a market cap of $2.39 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.